“We realized we can’t afford to do it all,” he said. “So we had to ask, what are we doing and how can we have it be inclusive? So scientists who can’t dive — they have a presence through telepresence.”

In addition to making headlines with discoveries of bizarre creatures, surveys with the Okeanos have, he said, had more practical applications. A fisheries survey, for example, resulted in the recent protection of 38,000 nautical square miles of ocean off the East Coast.

Mr. McLean said that should a scientist bring a proposal before NOAA or the National Science Foundation that Pisces was well suited for, Mr. Kerby’s team could still get funding on a mission-by-mission basis.

He further agreed with a sentiment expressed by Dr. Earle, that in a time of dramatic changes in the climate and ocean itself — some 90 percent of which remains completely unexplored — he would prefer that NOAA had a wider arsenal of discovery at its disposal. “We’re doing as much as we can,” he said. “But we have to get into these difficult situations where we have to make our priorities.”

In the meantime, Mr. Kerby and his maintenance chief, Steve Price, have been hustling. Mr. Price has been funded to compile a database of all Pisces discoveries for use by NOAA. A World War II documentary project has kept Mr. Kerby busy lately, and a series of geology, undersea cable and sewer outfall surveys will keep HURL funded through year’s end. He says he is confident more work will materialize, preventing his crew from having to follow the route of many former colleagues into oil and gas exploration. He’d love to secure the resources not only to keep his subs running, but to add a full-time robot sub to HURL’s fleet.

“An associate of mine at Woods Hole upper management said, ‘HURL doesn’t stand a chance,’ ” Mr. Kerby said. “ ‘They’re too far from the flagpole.’ Well, we are. We’re way out here on the ocean frontier, in the prime spots, and we’re one of the most cost-effective operations around. With all the new and unexplored monuments in the western Pacific, and all the groups that need to do that exploration, we’re the only viable tool with experience in these environments.”

He paused.

“We know what we can do.”