Commander G. Mark Miller is the commanding officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Henry B. Bigelow. A research vessel, the Bigelow surveys the waters between Nova Scotia and Cape Hatteras. CDR Miller lives in Newport, Rhode Island, with his wife and child, but, since the Bigelow is undergoing general maintenance at GMD Shipyard, at the historic Brooklyn Navy Yard, he’s spending a couple months in New York. We spoke with CDR Miller recently about his experiences and NOAA’s regional impacts.

What is the mission of a NOAA research vessel?

Each one’s a little different. The Bigelow’s primary mission is the northeast bottom trawl survey. We collect data for bottom fish, like cod, haddock, and halibut, and we’re always gathering general oceanography information—salinity, temperature, depth, and oxygen and CO2 content. This is used to study scientific trends such as climate change.

Scientists up on our flying bridge will look for whales and dolphins and turtles. We have a nine-foot drone that circles around the ship looking for animals. When we find turtles, we launch our inflatable boats, capture them, bring them on board, and put satellite tags on them so we can track them. We see right whales, humpbacks, and other whales. We have an acoustic array that we drag along behind the ship to listen for them.

We do deep-water coral exploration, out in the canyons, right at the break of the continental shelf, about 100 miles off Long Island. We have a camera that we drop down over the side and we also had a large ROV [remotely operated underwater vehicle] that can go down three miles and take samples with a robotic arm. The deep-water corals that we found in the canyons are a fairly recent discovery. NOAA closed some canyons to certain types of fishing, to protect the deep-sea coral.

How long have you been commander of the Henry B. Bigelow?

A little over two years. I got extended to this summer. Most likely my next post will be in Washington, DC, at NOAA headquarters. I personally love the back and forth. Every two or three years I rotate out and do something completely different. My last position was School Chief for the NOAA Corps Officer Training Center. I integrated the NOAA Commissioned Officer Basic Officer Training program with the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School at the USCG Academy in New London, Connecticut.

How did your career lead to command of this ship?

I grew up on the water in Virginia and spent a lot of time down in the Keys. I studied marine science in college and I did a sea-mester aboard the Spirit of Massachusetts tall ship in college. Seventeen years ago, at NOAA, I started in the Gulf of Mexico on another research vessel. I worked down there and in the Caribbean, then on another ship up in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. Lo and behold, here I am.

What’s been the most exciting or unusual part of your career?

Every day is an adventure. One of the best projects I worked on was that first ship down in the Gulf of Mexico, a National Geographic Sustainable Seas expedition led by Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is the explorer in residence at National Geographic. She was on my ship for a few months. We had a couple submersibles that we went exploring in. Tortugas National Marine Sanctuary was created in part because of what we found on that trip. Kathy Sullivan, the first woman to walk in space, who is now head of NOAA, was on that trip. Michael Collins, the guy who was the command module pilot for Apollo 11 with Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, was on board.

What’s a typical day on the Henry B. Bigelow?

We are generally out 10 to 20 days. We’ve got 24 officers and crew and up to 17 scientists who rotate in and out depending on what kind of work we’re doing. For our bottom trawl survey we work 24 hours; two 12-hour shifts. Every hour or two we pull up a trawl and dump it in the back deck for the scientists to sort it out. We do that for almost all projects. Never any down time. We do that weeks on end.

You don’t often see the NOAA logo around the New York and New Jersey metro area. What behind-the-scenes NOAA services do we benefit from?

After a major storm, like Sandy, NOAA’s hydrographic survey vessels are the first ones back in. The Coast Guard Captain of the Port waits to get the okay from the hydrographic ships that the entrance is clear. And of course we make the nautical charts. Ships visiting New York Harbor use NOAA’s real-time data for tides and other port information, so that they know, for example, how much clearance they have under Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The NOAA survey ship Thomas Jefferson works the East Coast and Long Island Sound—high traffic areas— to update survey charts. And the Ferdinand Hassler, a coastal mapping vessel with high-resolution multibeam and sidescan sonar systems that make 3D images, is in this area regularly.

In the last couple years, what scientific data gathered by the Bigelow has been most striking to you?

In the two years that I’ve been here, the fish migration patterns and timing have changed dramatically due to water temperatures. The bottom trawl survey is specifically designed to identify a trend over the long term, but we have seen certain species not moving where they’re supposed to go, and water temperatures that are drastically different than what they are supposed to be.

Thank you, Commander Miller! We’re glad you and the crew of the Henry B. Bigelow are out there studying and monitoring our precious ocean waters. Readers, to keep up with the Henry B. Bigelow, check the ship’s Facebook page.