They also introduced me to emergency billets during this leg. The next day, ship crews explained the rule to stay aboard and conducted a ship tour. I arrived at the ship the day before the departure in Cleveland, Ohio. My onboard experience was assigned to hydrographic surveys of Lake Erie between July 25 and August 5, 2022. This is the first time for me to visit the Great Lakes and survey only freshwater environments so I really looked forward to joining this experience. This season of 2022 became a special year for Thomas Jefferson because she engaged in several hydrographic surveys on the Great Lakes to update nautical charts for the first time in over 50 years. Once complete, I received the certificate of Category A course just two weeks before my at-sea experience! So, this at-sea experience means wrapping up my overall hydrographic training for over a year and getting ready to go back to the front line of JHOD’s survey works. As one of the international students of this training program, I was initiated into enormous hydrographic knowledge through several courses and labs at the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping / Joint Hydrographic Center, University of New Hampshire. My sparked interest in hydrography drove me to apply for the Nippon Foundation/GEBCO Training Program, taking part in this training program for one year beginning in August 2021. Throughout my career, I wanted to understand the theoretical part of hydrographic surveys and increase my practical survey experiences. I entered JHOD in 2015 and experienced some survey cruises including deep sea mapping, seismic surveys, seafloor observation with remotely operated vehicles and drilling surveys around Japanese islands. Introductionīefore diving into my activities log, I would like to introduce myself. I would like to share my activities and findings on Thomas Jefferson with you.

Thank you so much to all of the people who were involved in my experience and support me in many parts.

Thankfully, I could receive a wonderful opportunity to participate in the NOAA survey cruise of the Great lakes on NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson this summer. Hello, everyone! I’m Chiaki Okada from the Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department, Japan Coast Guard (JHOD).

Hypack training