Participant Perspective - July 22, 2001

Interview with Susan Hanneman
Research Assistant / Navigator NOAA/PMEL

Jeff: When did you work at Bob Embley's lab as his research assistant.

Susan: From 1985 to 1991 I worked with the NOAA EOI Program. Since then they've hired me to work on a part-time basis to go to sea when they need camera sled work, navigation or general support. It really makes you feel like an antique when most of the ships you started on have been decommissioned and sold to developing countries.

Jeff: How have you seen Axial change since you first came here in 1985?

Susan: I thought I would recognize some of the ASHES vent field chimneys such as Hell but the only one that looks the same is the anhydrite chimney Virgin. Even though I recognize some of the feature names there are so many new ones that weren't there when I first came. It's certainly changed through sampling and through all the years, 1985 till now. Yikes.

Jeff: How has the technology changed since you first started with the Vents Program in 1984?

Susan: When I first started we packaged positions by recording wire out from the winch and looking at the wire angle and then doing the trigonometry to calculate its position behind the ship. We had some really crude navigational programs. Then we started getting GPS (global positioning system) but it wasn't 24 hours like it is now. You might get a few satellites at a certain time of day. We'd still have to plot on mylar on the ship. Now it's changed quite a bit. We have SeaScape software that almost anybody can just go boot up and the transponders will tell you pretty much where you are and where you're targets are. It's real-time instant gratification. We also have wonderful plots of bathymetry shaded for topography. It's just gorgeous. It's a whole different ball game. The first ship I went on actually had a "secret room" where the SeaBeam was kept and unless you had a clearance, you couldn't go in there because anything inside the EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone within 200 miles of the coast) was classified for submarine surveillance stuff. Now there are certainly better facilities. Back in the old days you didn't hear from home unless you wanted to spend $10 a minute on an INMARSAT call. So, basically you're out of touch unless there was an emergency or you were independently wealthy. Now you can go around to several computers on the ship and get email twice a day.

Jeff: Did you dive exclusively with manned subs?

Susan: Yeah. We didn't have any ROV's. I can't imagine how many Alvin dives and other subs Bob Embley has logged. There's no one that wouldn't want to go down on a sub dive because it's just so cool. At the same time, with the ROV, so many people participate in one dive that economically it can't be beat and they are getting better all the time. The ROPOS guys just removed a tie wrap today at the bottom. With a little finger they popped it. Amazing. Firsthand observation is great but frankly you're not out there anyway. You're still looking through a view port. With the video cameras now it's wonderful. I suspect that ROV's and even autonomous vehicles are the future. Subs have their uses too, but when you can have 30-some people in the science party and you can stay down for days at a time, ROV's can't be beat. With less deployments and recoveries there's less risk to gear and less time lost. The first time I was on the Tully and I saw 15 scientists standing around participating on a dive. It was much better than going down and coming up with two people sharing what they saw. It's definitely a step in the right direction.