Have you ever wanted to find yourself up close and personal with the ocean floor but are lacking the diving licensure? Well now you can enter the watery depths from the comfort of your own home. For the next three weeks, until April 30th, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is carrying out the Okeanos Explorer mission. A remote vehicle, the ROV, is exploring the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico as you read this post, and the best part is that you can too!

The explorer is running not one, but three live feeds throughout the mission. One from the bottom of the ocean, when the ROV is submerged, one of the ship’s deck, and one showing real-time data that the scientists are receiving while the ROV is on the move. Those that have tuned in since the beginning of the mission have witnessed wonders of the ocean including an underwater brine pool, gas seeps, and coral beds. What’s cooler is that scientists are hoping to explore shipwrecks and underwater canyons as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Access to the live feeds are available on this website: http://www.iflscience.com/environment/explore-ocean-floor-comfort-your-own-home (excuse the name)

The crew of the Okeanos Explorer are also running a blog during their mission that they are updating regularly with the scheduled whereabouts of their ROV. That may be found here: http://noaaoceanexplorer.wordpress.com/okeanosfeeds/

In addition, highlights of their dives, aka photos and videos of all of the things that you may have missed on the feed, may be found on their website here: http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/explorations/ex1402/logs/photolog/welcome.html

So my fellow ocean enthusiasts, now’s your chance to go where no man has gone before. Take it while you can!