Know Before You Go: A Community-Derived Approach to Planning for and Preventing Sexual Harassment at Oceanographic Field Sites

Sexual harassment is a pervasive problem on oceanographic research vessels and while conducting fieldwork in general. A variety of factors contribute to inadequate protection against sexual harassment, such as poor training in prevention, support, and response; remoteness of field sites; academic hierarchies that reinforce uneven power dynamics that extend to fieldwork; and multi-institutional teams with distinct policies or reporting structures that can lead to confusion in reporting and responding to incidents in the field. In compromising individuals’ physical and mental health, sexual harassment can negatively affect research expeditions. For example, harassed individuals may decide to refrain from working on complicated team-based tasks, which can be a safety issue. A broader concern is that sexual harassment deters talented people from pursing or maintaining employment in ocean science. Harassment must be treated with the same gravity as research misconduct and safety policy infringements. When planning a research expedition, science team leaders are responsible for the safety of their team and other colleagues aboard and would benefit from resources aimed at helping team leadership create a plan to ensure safety and inclusivity. To address this resource gap, 18 participants in the Workshop to Promote Field Safety in Ocean Sciences, convened by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership and held May 17–18, 2022, in Washington, DC, developed a checklist for use by scientific leaders and others to assist in planning for participant safety and to prevent harassment the field. The checklist specifies the timing of, and who is responsible for, specific actions that should be taken to improve safety while conducting fieldwork, whether on a research vessel or on land. It also provides additional resources and suggestions for leaders on how to amend the checklist to address their specific fieldwork situations

Telepresence-Enabled Maritime Archaeological Exploration in the Deep

Abstract Telepresence-enabled exploration of deep sea environments has developed over the past 30 years, providing access to archaeologists, scientists, and the general public to sites otherwise inaccessible due to depth. Pioneered through the inception of the JASON Project in the late 1980 s, telepresence missions have expanded to two dedicated ships of exploration, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and exploration vessel Nautilus, and has been implemented on a series of opportunistic missions on other vessels. This paper chronicles the history of the use of telepresence for the exploration of shipwrecks in deep water as well as how this capability has allowed the public to engage with such missions. Broadening the scope of who can explore the deep sea, telepresence has also expanded what is observed and documented in the deep, which speaks to humanity’s use of the maritime world and an archaeology of discard through our material disposed of into the deep sea

The East Pacific Rise Between 9°N and 10°N: Twenty-Five Years of Integrated, Multidisciplinary Oceanic Spreading Center Studies

The East Pacific Rise from ~ 9–10°N is an archetype for a fast-spreading mid-ocean ridge. In particular, the segment near 9°50'N has been the focus of multidisciplinary research for over two decades, making it one of the best-studied areas of the global ridge system. It is also one of only two sites along the global ridge where two historical volcanic eruptions have been observed. This volcanically active segment has thus offered unparalleled opportunities to investigate a range of complex interactions among magmatic, volcanic, hydrothermal, and biological processes associated with crustal accretion over a full magmatic cycle. At this 9°50'N site, comprehensive physical oceanographic measurements and modeling have also shed light on linkages between hydrodynamic transport of larvae and other materials and biological dynamics influenced by magmatic processes. Integrated results of high-resolution mapping, and both in situ and laboratory-based geophysical, oceanographic, geochemical, and biological observations and sampling, reveal how magmatic events perturb the hydrothermal system and the biological communities it hosts