Global Support
If you’re going to travel the world capturing and releasing sharks for research, sometimes fishing off isolated foreign countries, you need a strong partner. For the OCEARCH research vessel, a 126-ft sea laboratory that explores the world’s oceans and its shark populations, an ally came in the form of a familiar construction partner named Caterpillar. The OCEARCH has always relied on Cat power on the water. The boat with its team of scientists and crew run on two Cat engines and three Cat generators that power its custom-built shark ship and its hydraulic lift that hoists a 75,000-lb capacity research platform into the water, holding captured sharks for tagging and testing (sometimes monstrous, 5,000-lb great whites).
But earlier this year, Caterpillar Inc. and OCEARCH agreed to something bigger — a multi-year partnership that will help fund the OCEARCH organization’s research on sharks with money, dealer support and a global presence that stretches from the Sea of Cortez to the cape of Africa. On February 21, the OCEARCH embarked on its first Caterpillar-funded expedition to Jacksonville, Fla. This past August, the ship moved north to capture, tag, study and release great white sharks off the shores of Cape Cod, Mass. Caterpillar and OCEARCH invited journalists out to meet the ship’s charismatic founder and expedition leader — Chris Fisher — who was fielding interviews all week on the boat from the likes of NPR, “CBS This Morning,” The New Yorker and Compact Equipment.
“The relationship goes way beyond the engine room,” said Fisher, wearing a Cat-logoed T-shirt. “Cat really helps us operate in foreign countries and be there safely and be their efficiently. Initially, I was looking for someone to help keep the ship moving and help pay some bills, and what we ended up with was a partner in traveling the world, operating anywhere in the world and leveraging that to communicate what’s going on in the ocean to the world. So not only has Cat allowed us to functionally pull it off, they have enabled us to stay 100 percent on mission, and they’ve allowed us to give away our research to the world.”
According to Fisher, OCEARCH is spearheading the world’s most progressive data on the biology and health of sharks, in conjunction with basic research on shark life history and migration. The OCEARCH fieldwork involves the attracting, catching, tagging and bio-sampling of sharks before they are released. From before dawn to after dusk, the OCEARCH and its small sister vessel (a Contender 28T using Yamaha engines) will use chum slicks, seal decoys and even air reconnaissance to spot and fish for sharks — often great whites. Being a former crabbing boat, the OCEARCH uses a deck-mounted hydraulic lift that extends a 75,000-lb capacity research platform out over the ship’s gunwale and into the water to hold captured sharks (usually around 15 minutes), so scientists can tag and take samples. Fisher and his team have taken that research and used it to educate the world about these often misunderstood fish.
Sixteen expeditions have been completed to date with more than 30 research papers in process or completed, in collaboration with more than 20 institutions and 50 scientists. In August, a new OCEARCH STEM curriculum for 6th to 8th grade students was launched nationally, based on the Global Shark Tracker (a website where anyone can track tagged sharks that move around the world) and developed by Landry’s Inc. (the restaurant and hospitality giant). During the course of the next few years, OCEARCH will travel to the Southeast and Northeast coasts of the United States, the Far East and South America to complete eight additional expeditions. Caterpillar aims to be there along the way to help, using dealers like Milton Cat.
“We got on board with them early on,” explained Kevin Hampson, marine engine sales manager for New England dealer Milton Cat. “Then Chris Fisher took it one step further and went with Caterpillar corporate. Chris got their endorsements and support. As a dealer, we’re focused on the engines and gen sets. The main engines are 34 12s — considered now a legacy engine — they don’t produce those any more. But they’ve upgraded the engine and turned it into an electronically controlled engine vs. a mechanically fuel-injected engine. Two years ago there was a total rebuild too. It was in-vessel, but it was a total overhaul — pistons, liners, cylinder heads, re-manufactured water pumps, after-coolers, turbochargers, the fuel system, the cooling system, the exhaust system. We put it back into like-new condition.”
Hampson noted that it’s the same dealer network that is engineered into all the markets Cat serves — from marine to locomotive to (our bread and butter) construction and dirt work.
“Right now we’re on the OCEARCH boat that may be in South Africa someday or on the West Coast or off South America,” he said. “Where ever they are, they’ll be able to get their engines serviced. There are technicians and dealerships all over the world. The key thing at Caterpillar is not necessarily the initial purchase, but the support we provide anywhere in the world after. If we have a customer in Bangor, Maine, that can get a parts order in by 5 p.m., they’ll have their part by 7 a.m. That’s pretty impressive.”
The hardworking, American, blue collar brand that Cat represents seems to be something that instantly gels with Fisher and the OCEARCH crew. As cool as catching great white sharks sounds, it’s not that glamorous. It’s dangerous, roll-up-your-sleeves, get-your-hands-dirty work that has a lot of synergy with the famous Peoria-based engine and equipment manufacturer.
“The brand itself is so humble and blue chip,” said Fisher. “Caterpillar is enabling us to do our work and is really not asking for much — other than to keep our centrist, data-driven approach and to share it with the world. How humble of a brand is that? That is powerful. That’s inspiring. That’s inclusive. We just have similar values and norms. Because anything is possible if you don’t care who gets credit — just roll up your sleeves and get the job done. If Cat could inspire other Fortune 500 companies to do that, imagine what these great brands could do for the world. I just hope other big companies are watching.”
Keith Gribbins is managing editor of Compact Equipment, based in Brecksville, Ohio.
