| Explorer of the Seas |
SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION ON
EXPLORER OF THE SEAS
By RICHARD H. WAGNER
(Originally published in The Porthole,
World Ship Society, Port of New York Branch, June 2007)
As part of Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager-class, EXPLORER OF THE
SEAS is one of the largest cruise ships now in operation. However, the 137,308-
gross-ton ship is also one of the world’s largest ocean research vessels by virtue of the
fact that she maintains in continuous operation a fully equipped laboratory in which
scientists are doing serious research about the ocean and atmospheric conditions.
The Ocean Lab project came about as a result of a conversation between Jack
Williams, then-President of RCI, and Dr. Otis Brown, Dean of the Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. After listening to the
difficulties scientists encounter in doing research at sea, Williams asked whether
Brown had ever considered establishing a laboratory on a cruise ship. The idea
intrigued Brown and the dialogue continued for another six months until a formal
proposal was submitted by the school to RCI. At the same time, requests for funding
and for instrumentation were made to the National Science Foundation and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The proposals to the
federal agencies required peer review and thus, “This was vetted by the scientific
community before it ever started, and once we got beyond ‘you’re going to do what
on a cruise ship?,’ people kind of got interested in the project,” remembers Dr. Brown.
The concept of having a laboratory on a cruise ship had a clear attraction for
scientists. Because of the high cost and limited availability of ocean research vessels, it
is not practical to make observations of any particular part of the ocean on a frequent
and regular basis. The most that can be hoped for are occasional snapshots,
sometimes months or years apart, with extrapolations made about what happened in
between. A cruise ship such as EXPLORER OF THE SEAS runs on a regular
itinerary, visiting the same waters week after week. As Dr. Brown notes, “In one of
our studies, we started looking at the ship tracks and I mean it is literally within minutes
and tens of meters on a track whether the ship is in the same place at the same time.
[This allows the scientists to do] very repetitive sampling. What this means is that we
get a regional picture twice a month. We didn’t have this practice before this ship
started doing this.”
A second benefit emerged once the program got underway. Because the laboratory
is open to the passengers, the scientists and graduate students are put “in the position
where they have to describe to the general public what it is they are doing, what
motivates them, and why it is good for society.” Dr. Brown feels that this is a valuable
educational experience for his students. “Scientists are not really good about doing
that. We communicate the geeky part pretty well but not the fun.” Accordingly, all
graduate students at the Rosenstiel School are now encouraged to participate in the
Ocean Lab.
For RCI, the Ocean Lab has several pluses. To begin with, it helps demonstrate that
RCI is a good, environmentally conscious, corporate citizen. In the early 1990s, RCI
suffered a black eye when an investigation by the Coast Guard and the Department of
Justice found that, contrary to company policy, some RCI ships were discharging bilge
oil into the ocean. Today, RCI maintains an environmentally friendly operating culture
with the zealousness of a convert. According to a company statement, “Protecting the
world’s oceans and the rich marine life they support is a way of life and of doing
business for Royal Caribbean International.” To this end, it operates according to an
environmental program called “Save the Waves,” which is based upon three principles:
reducing the creation or generation of waste materials, recycling, and ensuring proper
disposal of waste. In addition, RCI has created the Ocean Fund, which RCI Senior
Vice President, Marine Operations, Captain William S. Wright describes as “a fund
that we put in place to support marine conservation and research. I think we have
donated something like $8 million to about 49 projects and institutions around the
world.” The Ocean Lab project underscores this environmental commitment.
“Obviously, the ocean is the basis for our business, so our environmental
consciousness is very much at the center of our whole operating philosophy. To have
the Ocean Lab and to understand that we are making a difference - - the science is
cutting edge and it is really meaningful - - is something we are really proud of,” says
Captain Wright.
The Ocean Lab also benefits RCI in that it is a unique attraction for passengers. No
other major cruise line offers passengers the opportunity to visit an operating scientific
laboratory and to interact with the scientists who are doing experiments and collecting
data. At first glance, this may seem like a mismatch inasmuch as RCI seeks to attract
passengers with an “active” lifestyle who are interested in rock climbing walls, ice
skating rinks and water sports facilities. However, Captain Wright points out, “In the
six years [since the project began], we have had over 80,000 of our guests go through
the lab and participate in the interactive Eco-Learning Center that we also have on
board, and that is huge. It is something we can offer our guests that is unique and very
meaningful to them. They walk away with a very positive experience.”
Establishing this attraction was not free for RCI. When the decision was made to go
ahead with the project, EXPLORER was already under construction. Consequently,
areas that had already been completed had to be ripped out and converted into
laboratory space. Sensors had to be built into the hull for taking samples. Miles of
fiber optic cable were laid to link the sensors to the labs. In all, over $3.5 million was
spent by RCI. Another million was contributed by the federal government and half a
million by the University of Miami.
Some 280 scientists have sailed on EXPLORER as part of the Ocean Lab project.
They have launched more than 800 weather balloons and taken 1,200 water samples.
This research has resulted in 100 scientific papers by the faculty of the Rosenstiel
School alone.
One of the issues that is being researched by the Ocean Lab is the regional intake of
carbon dioxide by the ocean. Dr Brown explains, “Something like a third of the carbon
dioxide that we put into the atmosphere ends up sequestered in the ocean. We are
trying to understand the regional variability of that. The one thing that is clear whether
you believe in greenhouse warming or not is that the CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere is increasing. So the question is, what is that going to mean to the upper
ocean, what is it going to mean to the biological pump in the ocean, what does it mean
to the acidity of the upper ocean and ecosystem in the ocean? This is one way that we
can start to get at that by better understanding regional variability.”
Among other things, the Ocean Lab is also being used to validate observations made
by NOAA and NASA satellites and to study the circulation of the Gulf Stream. The
lab’s instrumentation takes atmospheric measurements which are sent via satellite
communication hourly to the National Weather Service. With EXPLORER now
spending part of each year operating out of New York Harbor, the lab can now study
a wider area. “Not only can we now look at tropical phenomena in the Caribbean but
[in the winter and fall] we can start to look at Nor-easters and how they develop off of
New England.” Dr. Brown notes.
“You think a cruise ship, it must be for show, it can’t be real. Trust me, it is all real
and really high quality data is coming out of it.” Referring to the name of the ship, Dr.
Brown concluded, “It is very consistent with the theme of this vessel, I mean of ocean
exploration. That is why we are here.”
EXPLORER OF THE SEAS
By RICHARD H. WAGNER
(Originally published in The Porthole,
World Ship Society, Port of New York Branch, June 2007)
As part of Royal Caribbean International’s Voyager-class, EXPLORER OF THE
SEAS is one of the largest cruise ships now in operation. However, the 137,308-
gross-ton ship is also one of the world’s largest ocean research vessels by virtue of the
fact that she maintains in continuous operation a fully equipped laboratory in which
scientists are doing serious research about the ocean and atmospheric conditions.
The Ocean Lab project came about as a result of a conversation between Jack
Williams, then-President of RCI, and Dr. Otis Brown, Dean of the Rosenstiel School
of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami. After listening to the
difficulties scientists encounter in doing research at sea, Williams asked whether
Brown had ever considered establishing a laboratory on a cruise ship. The idea
intrigued Brown and the dialogue continued for another six months until a formal
proposal was submitted by the school to RCI. At the same time, requests for funding
and for instrumentation were made to the National Science Foundation and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The proposals to the
federal agencies required peer review and thus, “This was vetted by the scientific
community before it ever started, and once we got beyond ‘you’re going to do what
on a cruise ship?,’ people kind of got interested in the project,” remembers Dr. Brown.
The concept of having a laboratory on a cruise ship had a clear attraction for
scientists. Because of the high cost and limited availability of ocean research vessels, it
is not practical to make observations of any particular part of the ocean on a frequent
and regular basis. The most that can be hoped for are occasional snapshots,
sometimes months or years apart, with extrapolations made about what happened in
between. A cruise ship such as EXPLORER OF THE SEAS runs on a regular
itinerary, visiting the same waters week after week. As Dr. Brown notes, “In one of
our studies, we started looking at the ship tracks and I mean it is literally within minutes
and tens of meters on a track whether the ship is in the same place at the same time.
[This allows the scientists to do] very repetitive sampling. What this means is that we
get a regional picture twice a month. We didn’t have this practice before this ship
started doing this.”
A second benefit emerged once the program got underway. Because the laboratory
is open to the passengers, the scientists and graduate students are put “in the position
where they have to describe to the general public what it is they are doing, what
motivates them, and why it is good for society.” Dr. Brown feels that this is a valuable
educational experience for his students. “Scientists are not really good about doing
that. We communicate the geeky part pretty well but not the fun.” Accordingly, all
graduate students at the Rosenstiel School are now encouraged to participate in the
Ocean Lab.
For RCI, the Ocean Lab has several pluses. To begin with, it helps demonstrate that
RCI is a good, environmentally conscious, corporate citizen. In the early 1990s, RCI
suffered a black eye when an investigation by the Coast Guard and the Department of
Justice found that, contrary to company policy, some RCI ships were discharging bilge
oil into the ocean. Today, RCI maintains an environmentally friendly operating culture
with the zealousness of a convert. According to a company statement, “Protecting the
world’s oceans and the rich marine life they support is a way of life and of doing
business for Royal Caribbean International.” To this end, it operates according to an
environmental program called “Save the Waves,” which is based upon three principles:
reducing the creation or generation of waste materials, recycling, and ensuring proper
disposal of waste. In addition, RCI has created the Ocean Fund, which RCI Senior
Vice President, Marine Operations, Captain William S. Wright describes as “a fund
that we put in place to support marine conservation and research. I think we have
donated something like $8 million to about 49 projects and institutions around the
world.” The Ocean Lab project underscores this environmental commitment.
“Obviously, the ocean is the basis for our business, so our environmental
consciousness is very much at the center of our whole operating philosophy. To have
the Ocean Lab and to understand that we are making a difference - - the science is
cutting edge and it is really meaningful - - is something we are really proud of,” says
Captain Wright.
The Ocean Lab also benefits RCI in that it is a unique attraction for passengers. No
other major cruise line offers passengers the opportunity to visit an operating scientific
laboratory and to interact with the scientists who are doing experiments and collecting
data. At first glance, this may seem like a mismatch inasmuch as RCI seeks to attract
passengers with an “active” lifestyle who are interested in rock climbing walls, ice
skating rinks and water sports facilities. However, Captain Wright points out, “In the
six years [since the project began], we have had over 80,000 of our guests go through
the lab and participate in the interactive Eco-Learning Center that we also have on
board, and that is huge. It is something we can offer our guests that is unique and very
meaningful to them. They walk away with a very positive experience.”
Establishing this attraction was not free for RCI. When the decision was made to go
ahead with the project, EXPLORER was already under construction. Consequently,
areas that had already been completed had to be ripped out and converted into
laboratory space. Sensors had to be built into the hull for taking samples. Miles of
fiber optic cable were laid to link the sensors to the labs. In all, over $3.5 million was
spent by RCI. Another million was contributed by the federal government and half a
million by the University of Miami.
Some 280 scientists have sailed on EXPLORER as part of the Ocean Lab project.
They have launched more than 800 weather balloons and taken 1,200 water samples.
This research has resulted in 100 scientific papers by the faculty of the Rosenstiel
School alone.
One of the issues that is being researched by the Ocean Lab is the regional intake of
carbon dioxide by the ocean. Dr Brown explains, “Something like a third of the carbon
dioxide that we put into the atmosphere ends up sequestered in the ocean. We are
trying to understand the regional variability of that. The one thing that is clear whether
you believe in greenhouse warming or not is that the CO2 concentration in the
atmosphere is increasing. So the question is, what is that going to mean to the upper
ocean, what is it going to mean to the biological pump in the ocean, what does it mean
to the acidity of the upper ocean and ecosystem in the ocean? This is one way that we
can start to get at that by better understanding regional variability.”
Among other things, the Ocean Lab is also being used to validate observations made
by NOAA and NASA satellites and to study the circulation of the Gulf Stream. The
lab’s instrumentation takes atmospheric measurements which are sent via satellite
communication hourly to the National Weather Service. With EXPLORER now
spending part of each year operating out of New York Harbor, the lab can now study
a wider area. “Not only can we now look at tropical phenomena in the Caribbean but
[in the winter and fall] we can start to look at Nor-easters and how they develop off of
New England.” Dr. Brown notes.
“You think a cruise ship, it must be for show, it can’t be real. Trust me, it is all real
and really high quality data is coming out of it.” Referring to the name of the ship, Dr.
Brown concluded, “It is very consistent with the theme of this vessel, I mean of ocean
exploration. That is why we are here.”
| Dr. Otis Brown |