The 211-foot ship sitting off of the Santa Barbara shoreline last weekend wasn’t just the yacht of another Russian billionaire. It was the Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus, the education and research vessel launched in 2009 by legendary ocean explorer and UCSB alum Bob Ballard, who’s used his fame as the discoverer of the Titanic to turn millions of kids around the world onto the intrigue and importance of marine science.
This summer, after past missions in the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean, Aegean, Black, and Caribbean seas, the Nautilus is exploring the Pacific Coast of North America, traveling from Canada in May down into Central and Southern California through July and August, including nearly a month around the Channel Islands. All day every day, anyone can watch the research in action via the vessel’s often quite exciting live feed at nautiluslive.org and even engage with scientists as they do their work.
Two Santa Barbarans will join the mission this summer, as well: Eric Lindheim-Marx, a soon-to-be 17-year-old competitive swimmer going into his senior year at Dos Pueblos High, where he is part of the Engineering Academy; and Katelyn Standerfer, a chemistry teacher and soccer coach at San Marcos High who studied aquatic biology and got her master’s in education at UCSB.