Follow a live dive

Aug 12, 2021

The MARUM-CTD (foreground), was deployed on the seafloor last year and connected to the box-like multi-plug box (background) of the OOI observatory. Photo: OOI/WHOI/NSF

Sonar devices developed at MARUM have been in use off the west coast of the USA for more than three years. They are part of the underwater observatory "Ocean Observatories Initiative" (OOI), which is operated by the University of Washington. In the coming days, the MARUM instruments will be routinely replaced with the help of the remotely operated underwater vehicle ROV JASON.

The dives can be followed live on the Internet so that the MARUM team can monitor part of the work from Germany. Already today, a first dive should start as soon as the still rough sea allows it.

Due to the corona situation, the MARUM team could not participate in the annual maintenance expedition. Instead, colleagues from the University of Washington are taking over the work at sea.

MARUM's equipment will allow researchers to monitor and quantify the natural release of methane from the ocean floor in one of the most active methane seeps from the Oregon continental margin in the northeast Pacific in real time and over several years.

Participation in the observatory is part of the M³ project for acoustic monitoring of the natural release of methane gas from the ocean floor. The project is fully funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and is funded until April 2023.

A blog and videos from the installation will be broadcast via the Interactive Oceans (University of Washington) website.

More about the M³ project can be found here.