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A New Ship’s Mission: Let the Deep Sea Be Seen

A giant new vessel, OceanXplorer, seeks to unveil the secrets of the abyss for a global audience.

After years of rebuilding, upgrading and outfitting, OceanXplorer, a former oil rig turned research vessel, is ready for its operational debut. Credit... Andy Mann

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By William J. Broad

• Published Sept. 17, 2020 Updated Sept. 21, 2020

In 2014, when crude oil was selling for more than $100 a barrel, the cost of a new drill ship for oil exploration could run to $100 million.

So when the price of oil crashed, Ray Dalio , the founder of Bridgewater Associates, an investment firm in Westport, Conn., saw an opening. In 2016, he bought a lightly used oil ship at a very attractive price and transformed it into his dream — a vessel for big science, big technology and big storytelling. Mr. Dalio’s aim is to help Homo sapiens connect more intimately with the ocean, with what he calls “our world’s greatest asset.”

OceanXplorer is now making its operational debut, after years of rebuilding, upgrading and outfitting. So is Mr. Dalio, 71, as a new kind of entrepreneur. He sees his glistening, high-tech ship as a superstar not only of oceanic research but of video production, nature television shows and livestreaming events that will open the abyss to an unusually wide audience.

“It’s going to change things,” in part by inspiring a new generation of ocean explorers, Mr. Dalio said. Schoolchildren in classrooms will be able to guide the ship’s undersea robot through the primal darkness, uncovering riots of life.

“This isn’t a dream,” Mr. Dalio said in a recent interview. “This is it.”

At 286 feet from bow to stern, OceanXplorer is nearly the length of a football field. Side-to-side thrusters can hold it steady in pounding waves. It can house 85 crew members and explorers. Its hangar can hold three miniature submarines for taking humans into the sunless depths. It has two undersea robots, one that runs on a tether and one smart enough to roam on its own. At the bow, an automated system watches for whales, scanning the chop to avoid collisions.

The vessel’s gear and agenda draw on a decade of experience that Mr. Dalio gained while traveling the globe with scientists on Alucia , his smaller research ship. Like the new one, it featured mini submarines with bubblelike hulls of clear plastic that give the divers stunning panoramic views.

In 2013, Mr. Dalio was exploring the deep Pacific with scientists from Yale University and the American Museum of Natural History when, in pitch darkness, a camera was flashed. The surrounding creatures proceeded to light up in bioluminescent waves. “It was like a fireworks display,” Mr. Dalio recalled. “Everything was responding. It was unbelievable.”

Vincent Pieribone accompanied Mr. Dalio on that voyage. He is an author of “ Aglow in the Dark : The Revolutionary Science of Biofluorescence” and a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine who uses the chemistry of ocean biofluorescence to study human nerve impulses. Mr. Dalio talked him into serving as vice chairman of OceanX , an undertaking of Dalio Philanthropies to explore the ocean. As the organization’s chief scientist, Dr. Pieribone helped rig the new ship for science investigations and directed much of its exploratory planning .

“I walked on the boat and was literally in tears because of all these things we were able to do,” he said recently. “It’s like something out of a Bond movie.”

Mr. Dalio is one of a growing number of billionaire philanthropists seeking to reinvent themselves as patrons of social progress through science research. According to Forbes , he has an estimated net worth of $16.9 billion, making him one of the world’s richest individuals. His firm, Bridgewater Associates, is regularly described as the world’s largest hedge fund.

Mr. Dalio said his ocean journey had begun while he was growing up on Long Island as the only son of a professional jazz musician — his father — and a stay-at-home mother. On television, he loved watching the sea adventures of Jacques Cousteau , the French oceanographer. Then, in his early 20s, Mr. Dalio learned how to scuba dive and, ever since, has been going deeper.

A turning point came in 2011 as he deepened his relationship with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The complex of shingled houses and brick laboratories is famous for devising Alvin , a submersible that was the first to illuminate the Titanic and to carry scientists down to the hot springs of the global seabed . The dark ecosystems teem with crabs, shrimp and tube worms.

Mr. Dalio was thinking of buying the Alucia when a team of Woods Hole experts used the vessel and an undersea robot to find the shattered remains of Air France Flight 447, which in 2009 had vanished over the South Atlantic with 228 passengers. Other search teams had failed, and Mr. Dalio saw the 2011 success as an indication of the field’s exploratory promise.

“It was a needle in a haystack,” he said of the jetliner hunt. “I was shocked and elated.”

He quickly bought Alucia and, late in 2011, also bought his first bubble sub after doing a test dive in the Bahamas. Almost immediately, the pair of vehicles made a major discovery.

The giant squid — huge and slimy, its tentacles lined with sucker pads, its big eyes unblinking — is a fixture of horror fiction , including Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” But it had long eluded science. A 1994 book by Richard Ellis, “ Monsters of the Sea ,” called the creature so mysterious that “no one has seen a giant squid feeding — in fact, no one has ever seen a healthy giant squid doing anything at all.”

In the summer of 2012, off Japan, Alucia and its bubble subs hosted a team of scientists who found and filmed one of the beasts. The discovery made a global splash in 2013 on newscasts and documentaries .

Mr. Dalio’s youngest son, Mark, was then an associate producer at National Geographic’s television network. Fascinated by the squid hunt, he persuaded his father to financ e a multimedia venture, Alucia Productions, that would chronicle Alucia’s research. In 2017, the ship appeared in the BBC documentary series “Blue Planet II,” which was credited with producing a surge in applications for the study of marine biology.

By that point, Mr. Dalio had purchased the drill ship and was turning it into a suite of mobile laboratories for deep science and public education. For expert advice, he turned not only to his son, to Woods Hole and to Dr. Pieribone of Yale but to the film director James Cameron. The Hollywood mogul knew a great deal about marine science and technology, having plunged to the ocean’s deepest spot in an undersea craft of his own design that he then donated to Woods Hole.

Among other things, Mr. Cameron suggested banks of lighting that would illuminate not only the sea creatures being studied but the experts examining them. Last year, he told Variety that the giant ship, as a set, would illuminate the passion that drove exploration of the ocean.

“You are going to have adversity and psychological challenges,” he said. “The crew will be disappointed, the explorers will be disappointed. But for every moment there’s a setback or challenge, there’s going to be that moment of discovery. You want to take the audience on that roller coaster journey, because that’s what exploration is all about.”

The ship’s giant hangar is designed to hold not only the compact bubble subs the ship has already been outfitted with but larger undersea craft as well. A few of them, including Mr. Cameron’s, can plunge down nearly seven miles to the ocean’s deepest recesses. Their spherical hulls are typically made not of plastic but of superstrong metals such as titanium that can resist the crushing pressures.

Another innovation on OceanXplorer lets the bubble subs send video signals from their cameras to the surface on beams of light, allowing not only rapid consultations with experts aboard the vessel but the live broadcasting of exploratory findings.

“There’s nothing like OceanXplorer,” said Rob Munier, head of marine facilities and operations at Woods Hole. “It’s geared toward taking the concept of great science and great media to the next level.”

The ship’s inaugural voyage is to be profiled in “Mission OceanX,” a six-part series for National Geographic television. BBC and OceanX Media (previously Alucia Productions) are producing the series, and Mr. Cameron is an executive producer. OceanXplorer, after being reconfigured and outfitted in Europe, is now in sea trials. Filming for the television series is to begin early next year.

Mr. Dalio has long called investigations of the oceans more important than space exploration — doing so, for instance, in his best-selling 2017 book, “ Principles: Life and Work .”

“The return on investment is so much greater,” he said in the interview, referring to ocean exploration.

A riddle of the modern world, Mr. Dalio added, is why understanding and protecting the ocean gets relatively little money, time and effort compared with outer space. “If you think about the excitement and the importance, there’s no comparison.”

William J. Broad is a science journalist and senior writer. He joined The Times in 1983, and has shared two Pulitzer Prizes with his colleagues, as well as an Emmy Award and a DuPont Award. More about William J. Broad

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Damen Completes Rebuild of 87 Metre OceanXplorer

Damen has announced its completion of the cutting-edge research vessel OceanXplorer following an extensive two-year rebuild project.

Previously codenamed Alucia2, OceanXplorer is now touted as the most advanced exploration and research vessel in the world, featuring a state-of-the-art scientific research station and a Hollywood-level media production studio developed in partnership with renowned filmmaker James Cameron.

The 87 metre vessel is the flagship of the OceanX fleet, a non-profit ocean exploration and media company spearheaded by billionaire Ray Dalio and his son Mark Dalio. OceanXplorer builds on the success of OceanX's first research vessel, named Alucia , and will continue its mission to uncover the secrets of the ocean and help protect the marine habitat.

Capable of mapping the depths of the oceans, the supersized explorer features sonar arrays, a series of submersibles, a dedicated ROV deployment bay, a forward helicopter landing deck with adjacent climate-controlled hangar and aft deck launch and side boarding systems for scuba divers. The upper deck also features a 40-ton crane and a 40-ton A-frame for the launch and recovery of all her explorative equipment. 

Tjarco Ekkelkamp, project director for the OceanXplorer project at Damen said: “This has been a challenging project, the result of which we are very proud of. On the one hand, this shows the extensive capabilities of Damen as a group. On the other, this is a vessel that represents a force for good in the world – one that will enhance human involvement, understanding and ultimately conservation of our oceans. With our strong commitment to maritime sustainability, we are delighted to have played our part in the development of OceanXplorer .”

OceanXplorer started life as a former offshore survey ship named Volstad Surveyor before heading to Damen Shiprepair in Rotterdam. The rebuild works were intensive with the addition of an integrated heli hangar in the superstructure, as well as extensions on both sides of the accommodation decks to house new cabins. The work also involved the integration of specialist hydrographic and lavatory systems, media studios, and state-of-the-art-research facilities. The vessel was re-designed both inside and out by Steve Gresham.

Also on board are a number of both piloted and autonomous underwater drones and two manned Triton submersibles, each of which can dive to depths exceeding 1000-metres.

OceanXplorer also boasts a media production studio with filmmaking capabilities developed with director James Cameron, allowing the team to create high-quality films at sea. OceanXplorer features state-of-the-art wet and dry marine research labs for analysing scientific discoveries. 

The explorer is to become the subject of a six-part documentary series entitled Mission: OceanX , co-produced by OceanX and BBC Studios, along with James Cameron for National Geographic.

Speaking about the project, OceanX co-founder, Ray Dalio, said: "The ship OceanXplorer will take ocean explorers to never-before-seen undersea worlds and allow them to beam back what they encounter via social media, digital experiences, and a TV show. It will be mind-blowing."

OceanX founder and creative director, Mark Dalio, added: " OceanXplorer will allow us to pair science and media together like never before and share the excitement and wonder of ocean exploration with a global audience in real time."

Designed to build upon the success of the 55.75 metre  Alucia  (the initiative's production arm was formerly known as Alucia Productions), which appeared in the BBC’s highly popular  Blue Planet II  series,  OceanXplorer  was built by  Freire  and launched in 2010.

Design input has been provided by London-based  Gresham Yacht Design . The studio previously said: “The biggest challenge has been making sure that the vessel satisfies the demands of differing disciplines, from the scientist through to the operators of the submarines, ROVs, helicopters and film production."

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See inside a marine science laboratory unlike any other: the OceanXplorer

The retrofitted oil ship debuts this week as a floating marine research center and a media production studio.

In 2016, Ray Dalio, an investment fund manager, bought a ship designed to sturvey the ocean floor to search for oil. Now, as part of his OceanX initiative, the vessel is making its debut as one of the most decked-out venues for advancing our understanding of the deep sea.

Unveiled this week in a new video provided exclusively to National Geographic, the OceanXplorer has been retrofitted over the past four years to double as a cutting-edge research center and a media production studio. The 286-foot-long ship has been modified to house a helicopter landing pad and climate-controlled hangar, a 40-ton crane, three submersibles, onboard DNA sequencing, and other scientific gear. In addition, the ship will have the ability to take high-quality images at unprecedented depths. An underwater modem will allow these images to be livestreamed around the world from thousands of feet under the sea.

“The ship OceanXplorer will take ocean explorers to never-before-seen undersea worlds and allow them to beam back what they encounter via social media, digital experiences, and a TV show,” Dalio says in a news release. “It will be mind-blowing.”

The hope is that the OceanXplorer will bring together scientific experts and talented storytellers to make the case as Dalio puts it, “that ocean exploration is both more important and more exciting than space exploration.”

Fresh from a field test in Norway, the vessel is currently in the Red Sea off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula . There, the crew is preparing for an inaugural mission to study so-called super corals, which have the ability to recover and successfully reproduce after severe stress caused by phenomena such as ocean warming.

In an upcoming National Geographic series, National Geographic Explorer-at-Large James Cameron and filmmakers with BBC Studios will follow the OceanXplorer and its crew around the world as they study different parts of the ocean. “It’s going to enable me, other filmmakers, scientists, explorers, to just get out there and find things that we truly don’t know are there yet,” Orla Doherty, executive producer of BBC Studios, says in a video that was released earlier this year, which was also produced by Dalio’s ocean exploration initiative.

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A billionaire hopes to change our understanding of sea life and save the oceans with a research vessel straight out of 'Star Trek'

• OceanXplorer, a 285-foot research vessel , contains cutting-edge tools for ocean science.
• Billionaire Ray Dalio bought the former oil ship and helped transform it into a world-leading research vessel.
• Ray Dalio's son wants the ship to inspire ocean conservation through advanced research and documentaries.

The OceanXplorer is both science and spectacle.

The 285-foot research vessel gives ocean scientists access to virtual reality, submersibles , a helicopter, and onboard laboratories, all in a setting designed to evoke a Marvel movie.

"It has basically every tool a researcher could dream of for exploring the deep," Eric Stackpole, a remotely operated vehicle expert, told Business Insider.

Stackpole is part of a team that traveled on the ship from a volcanic archipelago in the North Atlantic to just south of the North Pole for National Geographic's new show "OceanXplorers."

See what it was like to follow polar bears from the sky and study sharks from the seafloor.

OceanX converted a former oil vessel into a research ship.

Billionaire Ray Dalio bought the boat in 2016 . It was an oil ship at the time and he and his son Mark Dalio spent the next four years transforming it into a one-of-a-kind research vessel capable of real-time scientific analysis. Experts from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution consulted to ensure scientists would have everything they needed on board.

For example, it might take a typical research vehicle several years to get DNA sequencing results back and then return to the same location equipped with that data.

With OceanXplorer's onboard lab, researchers can collect samples, process the data in real-time, and then make informed decisions based on what they find.

"We feel like it's a lot more efficient," said Mark Dalio, co-CEO of OceanX, the company that owns OceanXplorer.

It's helping scientists solve some of the sea's greatest mysteries.

The vessel's pair of three-seater submersibles can descend over 3,000 feet and stay on the seafloor for 12 hours.

As a passenger in one, biologist Nigel Hussey witnessed something he'd never seen before, a Greenland shark feeding in its own habitat.

The sharks can live for over 400 years, the longest of any vertebrate, but they spend much of their time in deep, difficult-to-access waters of the Arctic.

"To actually witness and see an animal that you've committed a huge amount of time, blood, sweat, and tears to studying, it's indescribable how fabulous it is," Hussey said in National Geographic's show.

Seeing the cautious way the shark approached food could indicate one reason the species lives so long , Hussey said. Some researchers want to learn more about these animals in the hopes of lengthening human lifespans.

It was built for many kinds of science.

On board, scientists can use the four labs to analyze samples, sequence DNA, and study specimens. Meanwhile, ROVs explore the deep ; sonar maps the seafloor ; and a sampling tool measures the water's temperature, pressure, and salinity.

"I think the most unique kind of throughline is the cross-disciplinary nature of the ship," Mark Dalio said. Meaning researchers who study sharks, whales, squid, and polar bears can all make use of the vessel .

OceanX not only helps scientists reach locations from the subtropical Bahamas to freezing Svalbard, it brings along filmmakers and photographers to document the work as it's taking place.

The National Geographic show highlights the work of researchers who used the ship's helicopters to study polar bears ' disappearing habitats and another group who dove deep in submersibles to study sperm whales' prey.

"Ultimately, our goal is to help raise awareness of what this majority of our planet is like," Stackpole said. "If you don't understand it, you can't affect it."

Some of the technology feels like living in the future.

OceanX partnered with Microsoft to create a "holographic laboratory" on the ship. The cutting-edge technology makes complex data easy to visualize.

Scientists wearing HoloLens headsets can view a simulated ocean floor. It can help turn numbers in a graph into a representation of an underwater environment, incorporating data from sperm whale location tags, sonar readings, and temperature and salinity information.

"We were able to stand around this table and in three dimensions, manipulate a map of what the bottom looks like," Stackpole said of an ocean-floor visualization. "It felt like living in the future."

There are some bonuses to being on a billionaire's boat.

The vessel was built for scientists, but it still has some amenities you might not typically find on a research ship.

"There was a drawer that was just filled with ice cream you could get whenever you want," Stackpole said. "That felt like an indulgence for an open ocean expedition."

It's not quite like going on a luxury cruise , though. There's room for about 72 people on board, but passengers have to share rooms with bunk beds.

The ship is supposed to look like something out of 'Star Trek.'

Mark Dalio worked as a National Geographic filmmaker in the past and always wanted the OceanXplorer to be used for scientific storytelling.

Director James Cameron and his team — who have experience designing the filmmaker's former research vessel — offered advice about creating spaces that were both functional and futuristic. Specifically, Cameron suggested they take inspiration from a " Star Trek " spacecraft.

"If you're going to do all that work, make it look and feel like something like the 'Starship Enterprise' of the oceans," Dalio said. "Make it inspirational and aspirational for the next generation of scientists and students and educators."

Art director Page Buckner, who worked on "Iron Man 2," "Jurassic World," and other movies, also helped make the ship camera-ready.

"Everything can be ready to go from a filmmaking standpoint" when scientists are seeing something new or exciting, Dalio said. "It allows us to be a lot more in the moment during that and really capture that in a way that is very authentic."

In fact, most of the ship was designed with documentaries in mind.

The next big project is a focus on fish.

Mark Dalio plans to keep the ship in Southeast Asian waters for the next five years. The Phillippines is a hot spot for a variety of marine life.

One goal is to learn more about the region's biodiversity to help find ways to protect vulnerable species.

Techniques like whole genome sequencing will give scientists a clearer picture of what fish are present and what animals are eating them.

Other research will focus on gathering data to document climate change, studying coral reefs , and finding potential areas for preservation that could be used for carbon credits.

All this feeds into OceanX's overarching goal, which is to foster the next generation of ocean scientists. "We need a next generation of ocean scientists and ocean storytellers," Dalio said.

• Main content

Ray Dalio Launches OceanXplorer To Study World’s Oceans

When Ray Dalio was growing up on Long Island, he used to love watching TV documentaries by Jacques Cousteau, the French oceanographer. Now Dalio, 71, and the founder of one of the largest hedge funds in the U.S., is launching OceanXplorer , his own 286-foot research vessel, with three miniature submarines and two underwater robots, to explore the oceans of the world himself.

He also will make some documentaries of his own, starting with a six-part series for National Geographic , produced by the BBC with James Cameron, the director of The Titanic , as executive producer.

Dalio is best known as the head of Bridgewater Associates, in Westport, Connecticut. It is often referred to as the largest hedge fund in the country. Forbes says that Dalio himself is worth $16.9 billion.

Now he’s turning his considerable energies, and some of his fortune, to studying the world’s oceans and the creatures that live in them. The oceans, he says, are “our world’s greatest asset.”

After traveling around the world on a smaller research ship, and taking the first picture ever of a giant squid, Dalio bought OceanXplorer , a used oil ship, in 2016. It was built by Freire in Spain in 2010, and has a beam of 59 feet, a draft of 22’ 5”, a displacement of 4,398 tons, and room for a crew of 85. It tops out at 16.5 knots.

The ship has spent the past two years at the Damen yard in the Netherlands for a major refit, so it can be used for research, ocean exploration, filming and livestreaming events. Cameron has installed Hollywood-quality movie labs on board, and will use banks of lights underwater to illuminate not only the sea creatures being studied but also the scientists who are studying them.

The chief scientist on board is Vincent Pieribone, a neuroscientist at the Yale School of Medicine. He told The New York Times that OceanXplorer is “like something out of a James Bond movie.”

The ship is now undergoing sea trials in Europe. Filming for the TV series is scheduled to start early next year. Stay tuned. Read more:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/science/ocean-exploration-dalio-ship.html

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Instead of a luxurious megayacht, Ray Dalio the billionaire hedge fund manager has the world’s most advanced exploration vessel. Helmed by scientists the 285 ft ship has wet and dry labs, helicopters, submarines, and a state-of-the-art media center.

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By SuperyachtNews 06 Jun 2018

Ray Dalio announces OceanX and M/V ‘Alucia2’

New initiative and vessel aim to revolutionise ocean research and media….

Superyacht owner and philanthropist Ray Dalio, with his son Mark, director James Cameron and a number of other leading scientific partners, announced the launch of OceanX yesterday. This initiative, to further explore the ocean for educational and scientific purposes, will be undertaken by a brand new vessel, 85m M/V Alucia2 . The project aims to follow the huge success of ocean exploration carried out by Dalio’s existing research vessel, 56m M/V Alucia .

In a statement about Alucia2 and OceanX, Dalio illustrated his passion for conservation and understanding more about our oceans. "I believe that ocean exploration is more exciting and important than space exploration [and] we are on a mission to show people that." The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation is among the many philanthropic partners of the project.

Alucia2 will be delivered in 2019 and was originally built as a deep-sea diving survey vessel in 2010. According to reports, she will be “the most advanced science and media vessel ever built” and her refit has been designed by Gresham Yacht Design. Features of the vessel include marine research labs, media equipments (and an entire media centre), manned and autonomous deep-sea submersibles, as well as a range of helicopters and drones. James Cameron, known for his filmography and ocean exploration, was consulted throughout the development of the media centre. "With OceanX and Alucia2 , we will reignite global passion for and curiosity about the ocean in our global, digitally-connected age,” said Cameron. In addition to hosting scientists and media teams, OceanX will conduct virtual classes and museum exhibitions for people across the world.

"With OceanX and Alucia2, we will reignite global passion for and curiosity about the ocean in our global, digitally-connected age.”

Ray Dalio is founder of OceanX and the president of Dalio Philanthropies. His son, Mark, is the founder and creative director of OceanX Media, who worked with the BBC team behind the Blue Planet II series. In a conversation with The Superyacht Report last year, Alex Flemming, co-CEO of marine operations for the family office that operates M/V Alucia, revealed the driving force behind Dalio’s entrance into the yacht market. “He is a very intelligent man and he was always fascinated by the scientific community. He was introduced to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and he was so fascinated and taken aback by what they do – and what they achieve – that he had the idea to buy a boat.”

Flemming also echoed the importance of Dalio’s focus on ocean – not space – exploration through engaging media content. “We are trying to make it interesting, and fun, so that it makes difference and people actually say, ‘that’s cool’. Not only promoting the project and the idea, but also make people aware of what is going on. 70 per cent of our planet is ocean, and we only know about 15 per cent of it, how does that make sense? We’re spending more money trying to populate the moon than we are in our ocean backyard.” The impact of Dalio on the superyacht industry’s attitude to ocean conservation and scientific research is undeniable. Hopefully, his commitment to these causes will inspire more owners to follow his example. And as M/V Alucia has been at the forefront of many exciting ocean discoveries in recent years, we eagerly await the successes of OceanX and M/V Alucia 2 .

All images courtesy of OceanX

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