UA Student to Use Remote Submarine in Deep Sea Study

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Joysticks aren’t just for video gamers.

University of Alabama graduate student Robin Cobb will soon use one to remotely direct a research submarine as it hovers above the Atlantic Ocean’s floor some 2,000-3,000 feet below the surface.

Cobb, a native of Harvest, near Huntsville, will spend April 8-14 aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research ship as part of a team of scientists collecting exotic corals and photographing other rarely seen organisms and the ocean’s floor.

A graduate student studying marine science within UA’s geological sciences department, Cobb is getting the opportunity courtesy of a research program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, known as NOAA. Her UA adviser and research mentor, Dr. Fred Andrus, assistant professor of geological sciences, has previously participated in NOAA expeditions to deep-sea coral grounds off the coast of Georgia.

“Deep sea corals and fisheries are among the areas of most profound concern in NOAA as humans are beginning to have major impacts on these corals,” Andrus said.

The research ship, Pisces, will depart from Port Canaveral, Fla. April 8 with Cobb and 11 other researchers from six other institutions aboard. It will travel to a portion of the Atlantic Gulf Stream off the coast of Savannah, Ga. where it will launch an unmanned submersible remotely controlled by those aboard the ship.

Andrus and Cobb are most interested in deep sea corals known as Stylasteridae. Little is known about these corals, and through sampling and later laboratory analysis the UA pair hope to answer basic questions such as how fast they grow and their life expectancy and hope to learn more about their potential importance as habitat for commercially-important fish, such as wreckfish, barrel-fish and red sea-bream.

Andrus says nobody has made long-term observations of the coral as few are found in shallower waters, and humans cannot survive in the ocean depths where it typically grows. The excursion will be a lot like “detective work,” Andrus says, but the sleuthing will be in an exotic environment.

“This is like working on the surface of another planet.”

UA’s department of geological sciences is part of the College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships, Goldwater Scholarships and memberships on the USA Today Academic All American Team.