NOAA

Jim at the helm of the historic American whaling ship Charles W. Morgan on its 38th voyage, off Cape Cod, 2014

Project Shiphunt's documentary premiered in Saginaw, MI in 2012. Here on opening night are Russ Green, Deputy Superintendent of Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Jim, Tirrea Billings, Yer Vang, James Willet, Tiesha Anderson and Cody Frost (SONY Project Shiphunt).

Jim worked with Hans Van Tilburg of NOAA and Terry Kerby of the University of Hawaii's Undersea Research Lab to make dives in July 2013 that discovered the long-lost, 1946 scuttled wreck of the Japanese aircraft carrier submarine I-400. Here he enters the narrow hatch of the Pisces submersible prior to the dive (Hans Van Tilburg).

One of the proudest and best moments so far in Jim's time with NOAA has been to mentor and work with five promising students from Saginaw, Michigan during SONY's Project Shiphunt. Here, he confers with student Yer Vang during the project (SONY Project Shiphunt).

Pisces V lifts off from its underwater platform off Oahu with Jim, Hans Van Tlburg and Terry Kerby on board and about to dive to 2,300 feet (Hawaii Undersea Sesearch Lab).

Jim joins Fritz Hanselmann and Panamanian Government officicals at Panama Viejo to announce the recovery of a group of cannon belonging to Captain Henry Morgan's fleet that lost five ships during Morgan's 1671 raid, which resulted in the destruction of Panama City. The guns, discovered during Jim's Waitt Institute and INA-sponsored mission, were at risk of plunder and were rescued for the Panamanian Government. They are undergoing treatment for museum display at Panama Viejo, the site of the ruins of the city Morgan destroyed.

Jim talks to Harbor School students in Seacaucus, New Jersey, March 201

Jim talks to Harbor School students in Seacaucus, New Jersey, March 2014.

One exciting project has been the 3D BlueView sonar mapping of the 1862 wreck of USS Hatteras off Galveston, Texas. Here Jim watches divers deploy from the NOAA vessel R/V Manta (Craig Howard)

Jim worked with Hans Van Tilburg of NOAA and Terry Kerby of the University of Hawaii's Undersea Research Lab to make dives in July 2013 that discovered the long-lost, 1946 scuttled wreck of the Japanese aircraft carrier submarine I-400. Here he takes a quick moment to pose inside the Pisces submersible during the dive with Terry Kerby at 2,300 feet (Hans Van Tilburg).