Imagine the hot sun beating down, the constant hum of a ship's motor, and the feeling of salt spray on your face. All around you are bright yellow winged instruments outfitted with underwater microphones, waiting to be carefully lowered overboard. This is the “loading chute” of the Underwater Glider Challenge—affectionately dubbed the “Glider Rodeo” by those of us working in the wild Pacific Ocean.
As the gliders dive into the deep to eavesdrop on the world below, the pilots celebrate another successful deployment and move from the deck to their monitors. For the next 2 weeks, they remain on round-the-clock watch, waiting for the fleet to check in via satellite—signaling the gliders are safe and ready to receive their next orders.
Unpredictable currents around Hawai‘i will provide a challenging arena. While the gliders are autonomous—meaning they are uncrewed and capable of working independently—they will rely on experienced pilots to keep them on track. It's time to meet the NOAA glider pilots who will spend their days and nights wrangling the fleet.
What’s the mission?
The 2026 Underwater Glider Challenge will feature a fleet of eight passive acoustic monitoring gliders. For 2 weeks, our pilots will guide these gliders around a trackline offshore the main Hawaiian Islands. Our goal is to understand how different “breeds” of gliders and PAM systems can help shape how NOAA Fisheries monitors marine mammals across U.S. waters.
This project includes collaborators from:
- NOAA Fisheries
- Academic partners at Oregon State University and Cornell University
- Industry partners at Teledyne Webb Research, ALSEAMAR, JASCO Applied Sciences, and Hefring Engineering
Learn more about the Underwater Glider Challenge
Meet the Pilots!
Anthony Cossio
NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: La Jolla, California
“I work for the Ecosystem Science Division as the glider lab manager in La Jolla. I first deployed gliders in 2018 in Antarctica, and recently began deploying gliders in the California Current. My experience is with active acoustics, and now I am looking forward to learning about and using passive acoustics.”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“My insulated mug. Since you have to be ready to pilot any time, you never know when you need the proper liquid for the time.”
Contrary to typical missions, this “rodeo” includes a large team of pilots and gliders. What are you hoping to gain from this experience?
“This is a one-of-a-kind experience where there are lots of different sensors and gliders and pilots with different experiences. I look forward to speaking with the other pilots and glider experts about their experiences. I'm excited to learn how we wrangle all the data together.”
Calla Lloyd-Lim
NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: Honolulu, Hawai’i
“Howdy! I’m a biological science technician whose primary focus is marine fieldwork. This means I wear many hats, the newest of which is branded Glider Pilot. I’ve been piloting Seagliders since 2024 and am looking forward to comparing all the different glider systems—and working with new colleagues!”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“My TEAM! Drawing on their experiences to make important piloting decisions is critical to mission success. I’m grateful to work with an incredibly talented group of scientists.”
Gliders never sleep. What’s it like being on the “night watch” while your gliders are out in the ocean?
“It’s interesting and often a challenge, especially when piloting multiple gliders at one time that have staggered wake-up times (surfacings). Though getting up mid-slumber is tiring, I worry the gliders are doing okay out there, so I check on them often.”
Selene Fregosi
Marine Mammal Institute, Oregon State University and NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: Corvallis, Oregon
“I first learned how to pilot Seagliders as a graduate student at Oregon State University in 2014 when our bioacoustics group acquired our first passive acoustic gliders. For deployments, I'm typically left behind at my desk while the field team goes out on the water, but I enjoy this role because it allows me to put my organizational skills (and neuroses) to good use. For this challenge, I led the track and piloting plan, am coordinating all the different collaborators and pilots, and will be leading the Seaglider piloting. I'm most excited to work with and learn from all the different glider operators involved—I've never been surrounded by so much glider expertise!”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“Multiple monitors, especially when flying more than one glider at once!”
Can you describe the underwater soundscape of Hawai’i in rodeo terms? Is it more like a quiet field or a rowdy saloon?
“The waters around Hawaiʻi are incredibly varied in their soundscapes, so this answer really depends on where you are and when. In shallow waters like near Penguin Bank off Molokai, you hear the constant sounds of snapping shrimp. Far offshore in deeper waters it can be like a quiet field, until a pod of dolphins swim by like a stampede of cattle. For this project, we are going to be close to Oʻahu, and it's humpback whale breeding season. Male humpback whales sing constantly this time of year, so I'm expecting quite the rowdy saloon!”
Erik Norris
NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: Honolulu, Hawai’i
“I have been piloting Seagliders for collaborative projects between Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center and Oregon State University since 2024. I am currently getting our own glider lab up and running. During the Underwater Glider Challenge, I’m looking forward to learning about the different platforms and learning from the other pilots.”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“My laptop.”
The ocean is a bit like the Wild West, rugged and unpredictable. How do you prepare for the uncertainty when throwing expensive and sensitive equipment into the wild blue?
“Double check your double check (photos and checklist are great). Remember all the gear that has come back, and accept that if one throws enough gear in the ocean, it is inevitable that some of it might not come back, despite one's best efforts.”
Jen Walsh
NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: La Jolla, California
“Hello! My name is Jen, and I am a glider technician and pilot with the Ecosystem Science Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. I have been working with Teledyne G3 gliders since 2018, and have piloted nearly 50 deployments. I have no experience with passive acoustics, but I'm excited to support this broad effort to demonstrate how autonomous technology can help us answer science questions in exciting, innovative ways.”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“Dark chocolate peanut butter cups.”
Every glider has its own personality, similar to horses. Have you ever had an unruly glider go off track and how did you whip it into shape?
“We have! We've had several misadventures, but the most memorable one was in Antarctica, when a glider basically erased all its own files from its flight computer. We still don't know why this happened, but were able to recover it because of some very glider-savvy colleagues in the area who connected to it with a radio signal and were able to locate it. There was no whipping that one into shape—we had to lead that one back to the barn for repairs.”
Dave Mellinger
Cooperative Institute for Marine and Ecosystem Resources Studies, Oregon State University and NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Home Ranch: Corvallis, Oregon
“I'm a professor at Oregon State University. I've been working on acoustic gliders since about 2008 and have flown Seagliders in a lot of places for studying a lot of species. I'm currently working on real-time, on-board detection of odontocetes from gliders.”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“My coffee.”
The ocean is a bit like the Wild West, rugged and unpredictable. How do you prepare for the uncertainty when throwing expensive and sensitive equipment into the wild blue?
“Physically, try to think of everything we could possibly need at sea. Mentally, prepare myself to lose anything we drop in the water!”
Tegan Murray
NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Home Ranch: La Jolla, California
“I'm a NOAA Corps officer currently assigned to the Ecosystem Science Division at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. I've spent the past year learning glider piloting under the guidance of Jen and Anthony. I'm looking forward to building my piloting skills and learning how we can best use these gliders to collect marine mammal data.”
What’s one piece of gear you can’t pilot without?
“Snacks! Doesn’t matter what kind, but they’re essential for any field work.”
The ocean is a bit like the Wild West, rugged and unpredictable. How do you prepare for the uncertainty when throwing expensive and sensitive equipment into the wild blue?
“Lots of preparation. We train our gliders with instruction files, outfit them with the proper weight, and test them before we set them loose. The hope is that nothing spooks them once they're in the blue!”
Ready to ride?
The mission is underway! While the Pacific is unpredictable, our expert pilots are ensuring all of our gliders have a successful journey. Gear up as we take the gliders by their wings and stay tuned for updates as we recover our equipment and start wrangling the data!
More information
- Meet Our Academic and Industry Partners
- Meet the fleet: Learn more about each glider and the passive acoustic recording systems being used in the Underwater Glider Challenge
- New to passive acoustic gliders? See our previous blog by pilot Selene Fregosi for a full rundown on how PAM gliders work and why listening to our oceans is important: Sound Bytes: It’s a Boat, It’s a Plane, It’s a Passive Acoustic Ocean Glider!
- Want to hear more from Pilot Jen? Check out her Glider Piloting with Jen blog posts
- Want to hear more about using passive acoustics for marine mammal science? Check out our Sound Bytes blog
