Ok… you watched it all right?! Here is the genius behind George Carlin and please don’t take me for someone who is anti-earth or anything like that. Ya see… his skit resonated with me as I watch people, mostly not trained in any form of science, tell me how we should save the Planet, etc. Every time I hear such a thing, I wonder; ‘How arrogant are we to think that humans can save the Earth?!’ What exactly are we trying to save?
We are literally just a speck in geologic time. If we tried to compare earth time to human time… there isn’t an easily relatable human process (yes..even a blink) that can provide the proper ratio. As George Carlin fairly accurately states; “The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and humans have been here for 100 maybe 200,000 years … been an industrial power for 200 of those.”
Then George goes on to talk about plastic! Yes I am a firm believer that plastic is a VERY bad thing for the environment but not the environment as most people see it. Again, as George Carlin states, the Earth will eventually learn to incorporate plastic, “the Earth+Plastic”.
The point I’m so slowly making is that the environment we must protect is the one that humans occupy. We don’t need to save the Earth as the Earth will be “just fine” and we give her far less credit than she deserves. She also regularly reminds us of how insignificant we are through fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunami’s, etc. In less than a second, the Earth can wipe out thousands and potentially millions of us without no thought or malace. Our planet is a living functioning organism that will evolve to deal with whatever occupies it until the sun burns itself out.
So what do we need so save? Us!
We are killing ourselves off without even thinking about it. As one example, we are introducing Microplastics which are so small that they can’t even be caught by most filters incorporated in our water treatment plants. In an article on Livescience (https://www.livescience.com/62035-microplastics-bottled-water.html); “Tests of 250 bottles from 11 bottled water brands revealed microplastics in 93 percent of the samples, with an average of 325 particles per 34 fluid ounces (1 liter) of water.” How freaking scary is that? Makes one think twice about bottled water now doesn’t it?! The thing is that we have NO IDEA on what that does to us.
What do you think will die off first? Humans or the Earth?
So moving forward, maybe we should put our focus on preserving our home so that our children, grandchildren etc can also occupy AND enjoy it. I am a strong believer that our greatest adversary is ourselves. The shortsightedness of our esteemed leaders is all about near-term financial gain rather than what can be done to make a better world for those that will follow us. Remember… at our current pace, in 2 to 3 generations, humans will find the Earth more & more difficult to inhabit and will be fighting forces that we will never be equipped to fend off. Carcinogens and other contaminants in our drinking water and food supplies are on the rise. However, if humans have the ability to contribute to humanly catastrophic changes to the ecosystem, we also have the ability to reverse the damage and create a healthy balance.

Answer: This took some serious thought and to be honest, I struggled. I’ve always been a pretty independent person and have never been one to make excuses for poor performance. Much of this came from being a competitive swimmer growing up. As long as I was positive and had a good attitude, I tended to perform well. When I performed poorly, I took that on myself with reasons such as “didn’t train hard enough”, “I had a poor attitude before the race”, “didn’t eat or sleep right”, etc. But that wasn’t always the case… it was clear that with all other variables constant in my life, I performed better with certain teams. Why was that?! HOLY CRAP… the answer had been right in front of me since high school… TEAM! It was the team that helped me be at my best. Not just me, my training, my attitude… Yes those are all great things, but without that support of your team, your coach, your mentors, colleagues, etc, you just won’t perform at your best. If they have a bad attitude or constantly make life about themselves… chances are pretty good that will rub off on you. But, if they are there supporting you, coaching you, helping you find your potential and you do the same in return, everyone will be at their best.
Ok.. “team” it is! I needed to find not just a company but a group of people that I can do more than just work with. I’ve seen this in my past career experiences…. whenever I was part of “something more” than just a research project, an engineering department, a sales group but rather a expeditionary team, an R&D team and sales & marketing team…. everything was better.
But it wasn’t just the “team” environment, there had to be more to it than just that. So I turned my focus on specific teams during critical moments of my life. In swimming, I did my best with Santa Clara Swim Club; in grad school it was the MLML Polar benthic research team; work it was RESON. Hence the third question…
Question 3: What is it about certain teams that brings about success?
Answer: Again, not an easy question but this time I had help. Quickly after being “let go”, I was contacted by a company that I have always admired and enjoyed working with. I had heard rumors that this company has a pretty extensive hiring process but while at RESON, this company always seemed to have my back when “things” hit the fan, provide a great customer experience, have great products and seemed to be on the cutting edge of technology. During the hiring process, I was asked some amazingly introspective, soul searching questions. Questions that made you think, take stock in yourself and, if your mind is open, find answers. During this time, the answers to their questions came from within rather than being put in place if that makes sense. All answers came back to two intertwined concepts: values & team.
Let’s tackle the first concept that came to me… values. If people don’t share the same values as you, it will always be the square peg, round hole issue. You can have a really big hammer, but until your peg matches their hole, you will always be hammering on something rather than seamlessly making things work. While I won’t share my values regarding my commercial ventures here what I can say is that with every team I’ve ever been part of, we took pride in working towards a common goal. Another “aha” moment … it’s not just team, it’s how we work or it’s Teamwork!
In all those examples, we put our egos aside to not only achieve success but found joy in doing so. Yeah, the work was really, really hard but with Teamwork it was all seamless. You see, we spend close to a 1/3rd of our lives with our coworkers, will success come from simply “mailing it in” for a check? Well… actually if that is your definition of success, then yeah but then you’re not part of the team nor are you working in unison with others. A team with common work values quickly becomes more than just a group of individuals but they become friends, colleagues, coaches, mentors. Your minds become one and those teams that act as one always have a hand on the ball, eye on the puck (shoutout to my Canadian friends) and see higher levels of success. Again…Teamwork!

At InOceans, while we all have day jobs with separate companies, we are finding that we can have a team that extends beyond any institutional boundaries. The concept of “Collaboration” is introduced as teamwork for Innovation. We strongly believe that innovating marine technology can not be done by individuals, companies, institutions but rather through collaboration of all of the above. In essence, a team comprised of other teams who all working on a common goal; Innovation.
Please share your thoughts on Teamwork. It’s vast concept and your input is valued. Thanks for reading!

Oh… and.. yes I got the job and can’t wait to get started!

As long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by the ocean which is odd since my early years I was at least a 45 minute drive to the closest water. But I guess I got lucky to have a father who thought it was a great idea to become part owner of a boat over in Santa Cruz, California with a buddy of his (Joe Townsend) who just happened to own a boat shop in the Bay Area. Little did I know… my Dad had it all figured out!
You see at the age of 6 or so he’d haul my sister and I out of bed and drive us over the the “Upper Harbor” in Santa Cruz where the a 35 foot recreational fishing boat was all kitted out and ready to go (Thanks Joe!). While I dreaded the early rise, I’d normally sleep the entire 45 minute drive “over the hill” and wake up about 20 miles offshore in the middle of the Monterey Bay in a state of “Wow”….
…..No land in sight, Joe driving the boat, my Dad sitting on a bench teaching sister how to bait hooks while my best friend (Joe’s son Matt) and I would climb up the fly bridge and let our imaginations wander. Eventually the hooks would reel off the davits, bells would be attached to let his know if we got a “hit” and we’d wait (aka fish).
You ask how my Dad had it all figured out?! Well… my Dad would also take the time out to teach me about navigation. How to plot a course, how to use the scale at the bottom of a map to figure out how far out to go and what that criss-crossed “LORAN” pattern on the chart helped us figure out our exact position. Over time he let me sit at the helm and taught me to watch the swell, hold a bearing but also to watch the swell and when to make corrections. On the way out to the fishing grounds, my Dad would give me his instructions on how he wanted me to drive the boat, tell my sister to bait the hooks while he would quietly slip down to the bunks and doze off. So.. in short, my sister and I did all the work (and loved it by the way) while he’d sleep. On the way back to Santa Cruz, again.. I’d take the helm, my sister would clean the fish and my Dad would doze off in the bunks. In short.. he trained his own crew to allow him to be better focused on the fishing. Sometimes he actually caught something

So one day right around age 8 or 9, I took my usual post at the helm, my Dad gave his usual instructions on dead reckoning and dozed off down below. Something clicked that day though! Over for what felt like hours, my fascination and connection with the swell and wind grew stronger and stronger. I noticed how there was a dominant direction and consistent interval between the peaks of the waves. The wind and swell seemed to push the boat in one direction but if I adjusted my bearing by a few degrees over 10 minutes or so (like Dad said) the boat seemed to maintain course. After a while, land appeared at almost the same time as my Dad rose from his slumber and, to both our amazements… Santa Cruz Harbor was within sight. Ya see… I just accurately dead-reckoned ourselves back with no assistance aside from my own intuition and powers of observation. I was hooked (pun intended) and suddenly knew I had a purpose!
So why… because this is who I am and always have been.

Btw… Dead Reckoning is really, really hard. Thanks Dad!

Yes, there are all valid points and I can understand the trepidation but here is my experience for what it’s worth. First, I would agree that if most of your jobs only require a single kit (eg boat, sonar, adcp, etc) and you have a boat ready and capable, I would be hesitant myself to dive in. However, have you asked yourself what about “Force Multiplication”. A force multiplier is simply a tool that allows you to amplify your efforts. An example of this in the ASV world would be going out with a single crew with a survey boat but deploying an ASV that would allow you to have two kits working in unison that are both operated by that same crew. Such an amplification of your current resources in itself makes looking at ASV technology as a potential tool in your arsenal. While I remain neutral in my alliances, I would recommend checking out what Terrasond did up in Alaska as a great example of the ASV as a Force Multiplier. See that here: http://www.terrasond.com/news_12.html .

Keep in mind there are other reasons to make the leap. InOceans has done an extensive market analysis of the ASV market including several Pro’s & Con’s. If you’re interested in expanding this discussion, please make a comment below or get in touch with us directly.

(Image: ASV Harry owned & operated by 4D Ocean)