{"surveys":[{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2026_T02","StartLocation":"Fremantle","EndDate":"2026-05-05 08:00:00","StartDate":"2026-04-23 15:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2026_T02","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"CAPSTAN IN2026_T02","BBOX":"114.6067,-43.7137,147.5005,-31.8923","Description":"The Collaborative Australian Postgraduate Sea Training Alliance Network (CAPSTAN) is a maritime education and training initiative of CSIRO, the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the Australian and New Zealand International Scientific Drilling Consortium (ANZIC). The Program is supported by grants of sea time on RV Investigator (RVI) from the CSIRO Marine National Facility and through funding from the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). There are no specific scientific objectives for this voyage, however the CAPSTAN platform aims to:\r\n• Develop and provide an effective vessel‐based tertiary education experience involving national stakeholders and post-graduate students, by pooling national tertiary teaching expertise and personnel resources.\r\n• Develop a national curriculum to standardise teaching protocols/methods and learning outcomes in conjunction with the new data collection equipment and facilities of the CSIRO research vessel RVI, the Integrated Marine Observatory System and external stakeholders, and.\r\n• Provide and test a multi‐disciplinary research‐based teaching module for marine science postgraduates with opportunities for student mobility and national network development.\r\nIn addition to CAPSTAN’s core training objectives, this multidisciplinary voyage will explore:\r\n1. Repeat sampling and survey of selected sites in the Bremer Canyon Region that were examined during the first Capstan voyage in 2017.\r\n2. Oceanographic properties offshore of a persistent harmful algal bloom (HAB) in SA coastal waters.\r\n3. Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) Surveys\r\n4. Collection of samples for the AusCPR program using the Continuous Plankton Recorder.\r\n","Leader":"Pier van der Merwe"},{"EndLocation":"Fremantle","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2026_V02","StartLocation":"Fremantle","EndDate":"2026-04-17 08:00:00","StartDate":"2026-03-17 07:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2026_V02","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"Quantifying the fine scale ocean dynamics of the Ningaloo Coast","BBOX":"112.0234,-32.0564,115.7433,-16.4218","Description":"Scientific objectives:\r\n1. Develop and test novel techniques to derive, with quantified uncertainty, oceanic submesoscale currents (0.1-10 km) from remotely sensed sea surface height (SSH) and/or sea surface temperature (SST) observations.\r\n2. Optimise data assimilation techniques for improved ocean reanalysis and forecasts.\r\n3. Investigate lateral and vertical transport processes associated with oceanic submesoscale currents and their relation to turbulent mixing within the surface mixing layer.\r\n4. Quantify the fluxes of nutrients to Ningaloo Reef.\r\n5. Characterise the submesoscale current fields on the Ningaloo Coast and quantify spatial variability of eddy properties including hotspots of submesoscale activity that control ocean transport.\r\n\r\nOperations will include:\r\n- Deploying 3 through-water-column moorings, a wave buoy and a bottom lander frame with an acoustic release\r\n- Deploying and recovering of WireWalker\r\n- Surveys with shipboard ADCP and Triaxus to survey ocean features detected in HF Radar and satellite products, fixed-wing flights, drone mapping and/or satellite (SWOT and Sentinel-2) over passes\r\n- Release of drogued drifters\r\n- Recovering at least 2 of the through-water-column moorings and the bottom lander\r\n- Bathymetry mapping\r\n\r\n","Leader":"Professor Nicole Jones"},{"EndLocation":"Fremantle","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2026_T01","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2026-03-14 09:00:00","StartDate":"2026-03-06 00:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2026_T01","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"IN2026_T01 Transit (no research)","BBOX":"114.6978,-43.8094,147.5088,-31.9252","Description":"The GSM team has seen the upgrade of multiple echosounders on board. As a team they have not had any formalised training on the use of those echosounders. The team has contracted Kongsberg Discovery to provide 12-hour shifts of training on all the newly upgraded and installed echosounders. That will leave 12 hours of ship time each night for other support teams to propose their own training routines that can utilise the ship for specific training they would like to take on.\r\nOutcomes for the training include: \r\n• Coverage of theory behind many of the settings within the echosounders, use cases and recommendations to uplift the teams understanding of the settings that can be changed to improve data collection \r\n• Implementation of that theory on the echosounders during the transit to uplift the team's decision making and use of all the benthic echosounders on board \r\n• Uplift in the use of KSync for synchronisation of echosounders \r\n• Theory and practice on Seapath 380 inertial position and navigation system \r\nThe overall outcome for the training is to improve the way the GSM team use the equipment on board the RV Investigator ensuring they are world leading in the data they collect on the new upgraded echosounders.\r\n","Leader":"MNF"},{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2026_V01","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2026-02-25 08:00:00","StartDate":"2026-01-02 15:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2026_V01","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"Cook Ice Ecosystems and Sediments (COOKIES)","BBOX":"131.7675,-65.7985,153.2907,-42.886","Description":"This study has three major objectives:\r\na) to characterise marine ecosystem composition of the Cook Glacier marine region throughout the past and into the present, focussing on warming periods throughout the last 1 million years,\r\nb) assess relationships of benthic biodiversity and population genetic signatures with productivity and ice-sheet history, and\r\nc) determine the geological and palaeoceanographic conditions that may have influenced the spatial distribution of the Cook region marine life.\r\n\r\nTo achieve these objectives, we will collect bathymetry (multibeam) and sub-bottom profile data (PIs De Santis and Post), sediment cores (Multi-, Kasten, Piston Cores) for sedimentological, geochemical, paleontological and genomics investigations (PIs Armbrecht, Noble, Cordier, Leventer), imagery of seafloor biodiversity (deep-towed camera; PIs Hill and Jansen), benthic organisms (NIWA Sled; PI Strugnell), and physical (CTD, ADCP, Argo floats; PI Silvano), chemical (Trace Metal Rosette; PI Noble) and biological oceanography (CTD, underway seawater sampling) (PIs Focardi, Suter, Leventer, Noble). Due to the likely presence of sea-ice in the study area (monitored remotely by PI Lieser throughout the voyage), we will sample in our priority survey area, in front of the Cook Glacier, immediately at the beginning (January) or midway through (February) the voyage.\r\n","Leader":"Dr Linda Armbrecht"},{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_E03","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2025-12-18 08:00:00","StartDate":"2025-12-09 08:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_E03","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"IN2025_E03 Sea Trials and Calibrations","BBOX":"147.3406,-43.8509,148.8327,-42.8863","Description":"Marine National Facility (MNF) Trial and Calibration voyages are routinely included in the Research Vessel\r\nInvestigator (RVI) annual voyage schedule and are a critical opportunity for the MNF to undertake\r\nmaintenance, testing and calibration of vessel and scientific capabilities to ensure that the RVI can service\r\nfuture research voyage schedules. The voyages are also the only allotted period within the schedule year\r\nfor the MNF to conduct trials, testing and verification of new science capabilities, and the introduction and\r\ntraining of new seagoing MNF staff and affiliates.\r\n","Leader":"MNF"},{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_T01","StartLocation":"Brisbane","EndDate":"2025-11-27 09:00:00","StartDate":"2025-11-20 08:30:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_T01","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"RVI transit / Underwater Cultural Heritage Voyage","BBOX":"147.0789,-43.5749,153.8047,-26.7048","Description":"This transit voyage has several key activities and objectives:\r\n- Co-develop and apply RVI specific submerged landscape investigation methodologies.\r\n- Co-develop and apply RVI specific Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) investigation methodologies and specific high priority and / or know targets.\r\n- Deliver high priority bathymetric mapping along the transit route.\r\n- Media engagement opportunity in UCH engagement.\r\n- RVI’s safe and timely arrival in Hobart as scheduled.\r\n- State and Commonwealth UCH Practitioner alignment on RVI capabilities and survey methodology delivery.\r\n- Input into draft Cultural Safety Plan.\r\n- Draft guidance on submerged landscapes investigation methodology and reporting.\r\n- Mapping products for AusSeabed 2030.\r\n","Leader":"MNF"},{"EndLocation":"Brisbane","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_V06","StartLocation":"Brisbane","EndDate":"2025-11-14 07:00:00","StartDate":"2025-10-10 20:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_V06","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"The Coral Sea frontier: Deep-sea biodiversity assessment of the Coral Sea Marine Park\r\n","BBOX":"151.8908,-25.7291,156.7676,-17.299","Description":"This project will investigate benthic marine life in the southern and eastern Coral Sea Marine Park, focussing on two of the parks three key ecological features: the reefs of the Marion Plateau and the Tasmantid Seamount Chain (200-3600 m). This will be the first modern deep-water investigation of marine life found on the extinct volcanic peaks of the northern Tasmantid Seamount Chain which rise over 3000 m from the seabed and the offshore Kenn Plateau making this voyage critical for understanding of regional biodiversity. We will deploy a suite of gear types to survey marine life, including towed camera, eDNA sampler, CTDs, trawls, and sleds. The faunal biodiversity information generated will be used to determine how biodiversity varies across these key ecological features and between the bioregions within the marine park. This information will also be used to examine endemicity levels in fishes and key invertebrate groups and assess whether seamounts and atolls support greater levels of local endemicity than the continental slope and offshore plateaus. A detailed comparison of biodiversity data obtained from extractive versus non-extractive gear types will determine if they provide comparable benthic faunal composition data. Additionally, the project will provide new detailed seabed mapping, particularly on the Marion Plateau where data are currently limited. The results of this project will contribute to primary outcomes of the Australian Marine Parks' Marine Science Program, by increasing understanding of marine park values, through detailed data on benthic communities present in the CSMP and enabling improved evidence-based decision making by addressing key priorities established by Parks Australia for the CSMP. The most significant outcome for Parks Australia will be the provision of vital data on the benthic communities of the Special Purpose Zones and the Tasmantid Seamount Chain for inclusion in the 2028 Coral Sea Marine Park Management Plan.\r\n\r\nObjectives\r\n1. Describe the benthic faunal biodiversity (fishes and key macroinvertebrate groups) from biological communities around atolls, seamounts, offshore plateaus, and the continental slope of the southern and eastern CSMP in the major bathomes.\r\n2. Quantify the level of endemism of fishes and key macroinvertebrate groups in the southern and eastern CSMP.\r\n3. Substantially contribute to the AusSeabed project by maximising new multibeam coverage to create detailed maps of seafloor topography and morphological habitat types of the Marion Plateau, Tasmantid Seamount Chain and Kenn Plateau.\r\n4. Test predictive models linking biogeophysical parameters and deep-water benthic biodiversity.\r\n5. Collect specimens for species identification and descriptions, and to archive specimens in biological collections, including tissue samples to build marine invertebrate and fish genetic reference libraries for the Coral Sea.\r\n6. Conduct a detailed environmental DNA analysis across the study region in parallel with traditional biodiversity survey methods.\r\n7. Compare the faunal data from each sampling method to determine the most appropriate for addressing research questions, in particular extractive vs. non-extractive methods.\r\n8. Compare the biogeographical relationships of the benthic fauna found in the CSMP to other Australian bioregions.\r\n9. Use population genomic methods to assess connectivity, diversity, and source and sink relationships between benthic invertebrate and fish species across the seamounts and atolls of the Tasmantid Seamount Chain to inform management decisions.\r\n","Leader":"Dr White"},{"EndLocation":"Brisbane","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_V05","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2025-10-01 08:30:00","StartDate":"2025-08-10 09:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_V05","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"Eruption, destruction, and seafloor ecosystem recovery – Tonga's 2022 eruption of the century\r\n","BBOX":"147.3388,-43.28,-173.5062,-19.8653","Description":"This multidisciplinary project examines interaction of volcanism with the solid earth, ocean and marine biosphere. The January 15th, 2022, eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) was the most powerful of the last 110 Years. Its eruption column height of 58km lacks modern precedent, as did its multiply globe-crossing shockwave. An 850 m crater (depression) formed at the summit, a volcanogenic tsunami crossed the Pacific, and the volcano seafloor was strongly modified. A benthic survey around the volcano ~90 days post-eruption revealed devastated benthic ecosystems with few or no survivors, the baseline for examining recovery for years to come.\r\n\r\nThe overarching scientific objective is to understand eruption and post-eruption magmatic and volcanic processes associated with submarine volcanoes, and the subsequent impacts on the marine biological communities using the 2022 eruption of Hunga volcano as the key case study.\r\n\r\nDetailed objectives are:\r\n1. To calculate eruption volume and intensity of this 2022 eruption (Research Aim 1).\r\n2. To understand sediment transport mechanisms of the 2022 eruption products (Research Aim 1).\r\n3. To test hypotheses for the formation of the summit crater of Hunga volcano (Research Aim 2).\r\n4. To determine the recovery dynamics of disturbed biological communities following a natural disturbance (Research Aim 3).\r\n","Leader":"Rebecca Carey"},{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_E02","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2025-08-02 08:00:00","StartDate":"2025-07-26 08:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_E02","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"IN2025_E02 Trials and Calibrations","BBOX":"147.3378,-44.2404,152.6206,-42.883","Description":"This voyage will be an opportunity to undertake trials and calibrations linked to the 2025-26 long maintenance period, annual maintenance, and preparations for upcoming voyages. Generally, this aims to cover high-priority and some medium priority tasks identified by the Science Technology Integration Group (STIG), for example:\r\n• Vertical Sediment Winch, Seagoing Acceptance Testing – including spooling checks with weighted operations to 4,500m deployments (or deeper where possible)\r\n• Giant Piston Corer operations and methods testing and calibration\r\n• NIWA Sled operations and methods testing and calibration\r\n• Deep Tow Camera deployments testing and calibration, including tests of onboard vehicle sonar for collision/object avoidance, as well as stop-and-drop deployment methods. \r\n• CTD Modem functionality and methods checks\r\n• USBL Calibrations\r\n• Echosounder Backscatter Calibration and Correction validations and checks (BSCORR) \r\n","Leader":"MNF"},{"EndLocation":"Hobart","Track":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/underway/?survey=","Survey":"IN2025_V07","StartLocation":"Hobart","EndDate":"2025-07-06 09:00:00","StartDate":"2025-07-01 10:00:00","SurveyPage":"https://www.marine.csiro.au/data/trawler/survey_details.cfm?survey=IN2025_V07","Platform":"Investigator (RV)","Title":"SOFS Recovery","BBOX":"142.7787,-47.6341,147.9906,-42.8824","Description":"The primary objective is to recover the top section (surface float and instrumented wire directly below) of the SOFS-14 mooring, which was deployed on IN2025_V02 and begun drifting outside of its watch circle in May. The second priority is a recovery of the lower section of the SOFS-14 mooring, the feasibility of which will be assessed upon recovery of the surface float, and in discussion with the shore-based SOTS team. The recovery will follow the standard SOTS procedure, with required modifications depending on how much wire is attached to the underside of the float. It may be possible to do back-to-back operations (first the float, then the bottom section), but this will depend on both the weather and the fatigue of the deck crew and will be considered at sea and in consultation with the bridge and voyage management team.\r\nShould time and weather permit, there is approval for trying to complete the EM124 Backscatter Calibration at the Tasman Rise on the return to Hobart. This will require a CTD (1200m) for a full water depth velocity profile to support the calibration. 6hrs is budgeted for the work. The assessment for this shall be taken onboard, once the full extent of the mooring recovery is understood and underway.","Leader":"Max McGuire"}],"Purpose":"CSIRO Surveys."}