In partnership with SpeSeas and Blue Robotics, Ocean Discovery League hosted a three-day hands-on training workshop in Trinidad & Tobago June 9-11, 2026. The workshop introduced participants to the Deep Ocean Research and Imaging System (DORIS), a modular, low-cost deep-sea camera and sensor platform capable of reaching depths of 6,000 meters. The event brought together nine participants from research institutions, nonprofits, educational programs, and community organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. 

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The three-day program blended classroom instruction with extensive hands-on experience. The training introduced participants to hardware and mission planning; assembly, deployment, and retrieval exercises off a dock and in shallow water; and, data processing and imagery annotation. Six of the participants will use their new skills to deploy two DORIS units in July 2026 from Falkor (too) during the first locally led expedition to explore the deep waters of Trinidad & Tobago. One participant will use DORIS to support her work to understand the South Pacific region of Costa Rica and promote conservation in Golfo Dulce and the Corcovado marine protected area. Several of the participants will also use DORIS to contribute to the Deep Ocean Research Alliance, an international effort of research-for-conservation institutions in the Eastern Tropical Pacific to catalyze collaborative research, data integration, and policy uptake for long-term stewardship of cold water coral habitats. 

The workshop is part of a larger effort by ODL to build a global network of deep-sea observers and to accelerate deep-ocean exploration. Looking ahead, ODL and Blue Robotics plan to continue refining the first-generation DORIS system based on user feedback before moving toward commercialization of a second-generation platform by 2027–2028, with the goal of scaling production to make systems available at low cost to researchers worldwide.