Sylvia Celebrates 10 Years with the Rutgers Institute of Marine Science

March 10, 2014

Dr. Sylvia Earle recently visited the Rutgers Institute of Marine Science in New Brunswick, New Jersey and gave a keynote speech for their 10th Anniversary. She’s been a partner of this leading organization since her attendance at the groundbreaking ceremony 10 years ago. And what an amazing 10 years its been at the Institute!

Just what does the Rutgers Institute of Marine Science do? Check out the video below for the lowdown.

The Institute grabbed headlines last year for their innovative ocean drone program which is mapping and recording different aspects of the marine environment such as temperature, currents and even migrating fish. This program is part of the ambitious Gliderpalooza Program, a collaborative ocean survey program coordinated between 16 American and Canadian government bodies and research teams. Fruit from this research has a wide variety of implications such as potentially predicting big storms at sea from ocean temperature data.

“If we can better predict the intensity, we can better predict the human impact,” said Scott M. Glenn, an oceanographer at Rutgers, “and that’s critical, especially in Asia, where so many people die when these typhoons make landfall.”

Oceanography is relying ever more on drones to conduct their research and, in this sense, Rutgers is truly on the cutting edge. As of last year their drones have traveled more than 93,000 miles. Check out the impressive map below for full details. You can find the New York Times article about their drone program here. Click here for heaps of information from Rutgers about discoveries they have made with the drones —  as well as new mysteries that have been revealed.

Ocean exploration onward!