Lab to Jason: Interview with theJASON Pit crew leader Tito Collasius

 By: Meghomita Das (www.meghomita.com)

Tito Collasius is the JASON expedition leader for the research cruises that requires Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) Jason operations. Jason has gone to all parts of the ocean wherever scientists requires a remote vehicle to hover over the ocean bottom and deploy instruments on the ocean floor. Tito is one of the three main people on this ship, along with the captain of the ship and chief scientist, who gets to make the final shots regarding the operations of the ship and its research goals. Tito manages the Jason team which consists of three sub-teams of pilot, navigator, and an engineer along with a data management specialist. When planning the Plan of Day list on our Board of Lies, we frequently hear the phrase: "We do Jason deployments when Tito says it's Jason time." When he was taking a tiny break during his Jason operations, I sat down with him and asked him some questions about his work at sea!

Jason Expedition Leader: Tito Collasius. 

Q: How did you get started in ROV operations? 

Tito: I joined the WHOI as a mess attendant on the expedition that used Argo and Angus to find the remains of Titanic. I saw the first visuals of the Titanic ballroom on the screen that completely blew my mind. I immediately wanted that job, to go to the ocean bottom and explore!

Q: How has it been operating the former versions of Jason to this current version?

T: I worked on the first Jason back in 1990-2000. The current Jason is the second iteration of Jason with vastly improved mechanics and better image resolution. 

Q: What are some of the wildest requests you have received  from scientists for Jason operations? 

T: For one mission, I was asked to place Jason right in front of a seafloor volcano called Mata. I was worried that it would damage Jason. It was wild to see the visuals as the volcano ejected lava bombs and tephra, some of which landed onto Jason. But, we did the mission successfully. It was just a really cool experience to capture a volcanic eruption that close to Jason. 

Q: What are some of the coolest things you have seen during Jason dives to the sea floor?

T: Hydrothermal vents are always cool to see with its chimneys of smoke gushing out of the seafloor. Sometimes, the scientists want us to fly in between the smokers which is quite a challenging environment to navigate since the smokers are so close to each other and they eject thick plumes of smoke everwhere. I also like to see some dumbo octopus. They are so cute and I like to follow them around some times.

Q: Do you like working with Jason? Are there any other ROVs that you would like to operate in the future? 

T: Working as part of the Jason team is a job that I could not even dream of and it has been amazing to operate Jason and see its progression over the years. I would love to continue operating Jason. I also pilot the Nautilus sometimes so that is another vehicle that I know of. But I am a big fan of Jason so I will stick to operating it for as long as possible. 

Q: Can you briefly describe the role of the Jason operations team? 

T: We have a pilot in our crew who does the driving and manipulating the arms of Jason. Then there is the navigator who is responsible for driving the ship to where Jason is (during Jason operations, the Jason team takes brief control of the ship's navigation). Finally, we have an engineer who watches the cables and winches and controls the tension on it as Jason descends and moves about in the water. We have three sets of engineers, pilots, and navigators who work in shifts of 4 hours on and 8 hours off. Since we are generating so much data during each of our dives, we have one data management person in our whole team who is responsible for organizing all the data that we collect during our Jason dives, including images and videos from Jason's multiple cameras. 

Q: How do you feel managing and leading this team? What do you all do when you are not working on Jason? 

T: It has been really fun leading this crew. They are fun people coming together from different parts of the world. We really enjoy working together. We equally enjoy playing games together during our off time and having dinners as a group when we are back on land!

Tito giving us an orientation of ROV Jason and its operations in the Jason van.

A cool thing to see within the Jason van: They have a disco ball in the van that turns the van into a disco floor when Jason is on deck.