Sanctuary Hosts Live Broadcast of Exploration Vessel

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to board an exploration vessel, and sail into the unknown? Well you can come pretty close to that this week, by joining the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary for its live–broadcast from the exploration vessel, The Nautilus.

On Wednesday July 26th, from 10:30 to 11:30 am, the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary will hold a completely free, live–broadcast from the exploration vessel E.V. Nautilus.

“Exploration vessels are fairly unique. There are only 3 exploration vessels in the world. What I mean by ‘exploration vessel’ is that their main mission is to go where man has not gone before on earth,” says ACC’s Marine Tech instructor David Cummins.

While research vessels leave shore in an attempt to answer questions that science might have, working to prove or disprove a hypothesis…exploration vessels go out and find new questions for science to address.

Through satellite technology, the E.V. Nautilus will be connected to the University of Rhode Island. From there, students will connect to the Sanctuary in Alpena through the Internet, and provide a live broadcast of the team about the E.V. Nautilus.

“People aboard the ship right now will be able to answer questions, any curiosities that our audience might have…from what’s life like on the ship, to what work they’re doing in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary right now,” Cummins adds.

Cummins was fortunate enough to be aboard the vessel last year as a science communications fellow. He says he hopes this live broadcast will help the audience and community become more aware of the career options in exploration.

While its convenient to be able to hop online or watch the live broadcast on television, Cummins hopes his students who will be in attendance as well as other audience members, recognize that they can do this for a living if it interests them.