It is not often that a piece of scientific equipment from BIOS’s research vessel (R/V) Atlantic Explorer gets the opportunity to help the broader community in Bermuda. But that is just what happened to an ultra-low temperature (ULT) freezer as the island prepared to receive and administer the newly developed COVID-19 vaccine.

After a year of shark attacks, leaking instruments, and a hiatus resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic, BIOS’s gliders are back to work in the waters offshore Bermuda.

Oceanographer Neal Pettigrew is still piecing together the 1,392-day trip his runaway buoy made from the Gulf of Maine, which ended with its recovery on board the BIOS-operated research vessel Atlantic Explorer just before Halloween. But this much he knows: just by drifting freely over huge distances around the Atlantic, the buoy collected a remarkable amount of information about the ocean.

In early August, BIOS welcomed two new members to its Ship Operations Department—Ella Cedarholm and Lydia Sgouros—both marine technicians aboard the Institute’s 170-foot (52 meter) research vessel (R/V) Atlantic Explorer.

Follow Doug on the 10 day cruise here.

Earlier this year, the BIOS Board of Trustees unanimously voted to award Captain John Moore with the Richard Gorham Award for “his long and valued support and extraordinary service to BIOS.”

Ruth Curry, Senior Research Specialist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is used to the challenges that come with deep-ocean research; after all, she has spent the last three decades measuring circulation pathways in the Atlantic Ocean. But she never expected that, on a calm day in November, she’d require the help of two ships and an underwater robot to literally save her research program, an undertaking she describes as, “the most exciting thing I’ve done in my 32 years of going to sea.”

Some of our achievements in 2012 using ocean science for human good include work to:

Since 1978 the Oceanic Flux Program (OFP) has been studying particle fluxes in the deep Sargasso Sea. This year, the OFP celebrates 35 years of continuous measurements, making it the longest running time-series of its kind. “This is a monumental achievement for oceanography and for the US National Science Foundation, which supports the OFP. It is remarkable to look back at all we have learned about the workings of the deep ocean since the OFP began. And as we add ever more sophisticated instruments on the OFP mooring, it is really exciting to look forward to more discoveries about the deep,” says Dr. Maureen Conte, Associate Scientist at BIOS and Adjunct Scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory Ecosystems Center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Susan Brittner came to Bermuda in 2007 when her husband, Darrel, transferred for work to the Fairmont Southampton hotel. After almost two years in Bermuda working at a bank, she saw the posting for the marine operations position. “I felt like someone had written that ad specifically with me in mind,” she said.  Brittner, 59, helps to coordinate the schedule for the 170-foot BIOS research vessel Atlantic Explorer, a job that daily requires a multitude of decisions and skill sets. After spending more than 20 years in the Canadian Navy, she said she “really couldn’t ask for a more appropriate place to wind up.”