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Boldly exploring our unknown Ocean to excite interest and inform the wise stewardship of our planet.
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#samplinggap#deepsea#designingthefuture3#mardelplatacanyon#southsandwichislands#poetryinocean#deepwonders#ray#science#trinidadandtobago
Recent posts
A new way of seeing the deep!
Most life on Earth lives in a place we can’t see, a place we can’t reach easily, and a place we still barely understand: the Ocean’s midwater. It encompasses all the water below the surface and above the seafloor — the Earth’s most expansive yet least explored ecosystem. To explore the midwater, we need entirely new ways of seeing.
During the #DesigningtheFuture3 expedition, the science team mounted a special imaging system on ROV SuBastian. The space-age instrument responsible for this laser light show is DeepPIV, for Deep particle image velocimetry; it was developed by Dr. @kakanikatija and her team in the Bioinspiration Lab at @mbari_news. The imaging system can illuminate a sheet of fluid and measure how it moves around an animal (such as this siphonphore recorded at 835 m) and how the animal might manipulate the fluid for locomotion, feeding, and reproduction. DeepPIV can also create a rich 3-D portrait of a living animal by scanning sections of the body, allowing scientists to observe different aspects of its physical structure.
“Being able to use these kinds of imaging systems allows us to get a snapshot in time of what these animals look like in their natural environment,” said Dr. Katija. “It really gives us a more accurate representation. I think imaging is really powerful because it allows us to non-invasively look at the animals we’re trying to study with the goal of inspiring empathy for these animals that we come across.”
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
22 May 2026
Once, we believed that nothing lived in the depths of the Ocean — a realm shrouded in endless night. But that started to change in the 1800s. Long-distance communication evolved from drums and smoke signals to mail and eventually to mechanical means for transmitting messages over great distances. In the 1860s, the paddle steamer HMS Bulldog conducted surveys for a potential transatlantic telegraph cable. They dropped sounding lines, or weighted ropes with distances marked off at regular intervals for measuring the depth of water under the boat.
In “The Sea Around Us,” Rachel Carson writes about a line that had been left to sit on the seafloor for some time at a depth of 1,260 fathoms (or 2,304 meters in modern measurements). When the Bulldog crew retrieved the line, 13 seastars were clinging to the rope. She quoted the ship’s naturalist, who wrote, “the deep has sent forth the long coveted message.” The seastars were a sign that life might be more plentiful in the deep Ocean than humans had once imagined.
This #MarDelPlataCanyon seastar, despite all the obvious signs, does not have a big butt. The animal thrilled audiences because it resembled the famous SpongeBob character, Patrick Star. During the Argentine-led expedition, scientists observed deep-sea coral reefs and discovered 40 suspected new species, including anemones, sea cucumbers, sea urchins, snails, crinoids, and more. Perhaps this quirky-looking seastar offered another message from the deep for us all: there is much to explore and learn in the sea around us.
03 Oct 2025
🦑 This baby is COLOSSAL! 🦑
This is the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat. Pilots filmed the young cephalopod at about 600m near the South Sandwich Islands as the Schmidt Ocean Institute's remotely operated vehicle SuBastian descended through the water column on a dive aiming to discover new marine species in partnership with Ocean Census during the #SouthSandwichIslands expedition.
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni was formally described and named 100 years ago, in 1925, based on two partial specimens found in the stomach of a sperm whale near the South Shetland Islands. However, no one has ever captured footage of a living colossal squid — until now.
Seabirds, marine mammals, and fish prey on juvenile colossal squid. At full size, their only known predators are sperm whales and sleeper sharks, although remains of large adults have also been found in toothfish stomachs, likely scavenged. Experts believe colossal squid may reach total lengths of 6 to 7 meters and weigh about as much as a small Italian Fiat at more than 500 kilograms, making them the heaviest known invertebrate.
Dr Kat Bolstad, associate professor and lab leader of the Auckland University of Technology Lab, NZ, worked with glass squid expert Dr. Aaron Evans to help confirm this observation; she narrated this video. Read the full Schmidt Ocean Institute announcement via the link in our bio.
15 Apr 2025
We're celebrating Schmidt Ocean Institute Co-Founder Wendy Schmidt and her inclusion on the list of Time Magazine's 100 leaders driving measurable, successful, and equitable business climate action. Read more:
https://time.com/collection/time100-climate/2026/wendy-schmidt/
Image: Ben Gibbs
01 Jan 1970
Coral #PoetryInOcean 🪸
“Meanwhile, not idle, though unwatched by me,
The coral architects in silence reared
Tower after tower beneath the dark abyss.
Pyramidal in form the fabrics rose,
From ample basements narrowing to the height . . .”
In “The Pelican Island,” James Montgomery writes of tiny polyps transforming their world, much like architects on land. The animals build towering structures, which are fundamental to all who depend on them for shelter and survival. While our knowledge of life in the deep has grown immensely since this poem’s publication in 1827, the poet captures the essence of corals — both cold-water and shallow — and how essential they are to the ecosystems they support.
Scientists observed this Chrysogorgia community, a diverse genus of octocorals, at 3,331 meters during the recent #SamplingGap expedition along the Romanche Fracture Zone.
Bisecting the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the equatorial Atlantic, this 950-km transform fault zone serves as a vital corridor between the eastern and western Atlantic basins, allowing deep-water currents to move between the two. Access to currents often means access to nutrients for these stationary animals and all who associate with them. The expedition team documented thriving biodiversity hotspots, and their work will advance efforts to classify specific areas of this high seas region as Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
10 Nov 2026
The Ocean is alive and replete with wonder.
This is a lobate ctenophore. Also known as a comb jelly, this type of animal plays an integral role in the Ocean’s “jelly web,” according to Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Scientists use the term jelly web to describe ocean food webs where ctenophores, jellyfish, and other gelatinous animals act as predators, prey, and carbon lifelines. Ctenophores dine on tiny critters, and, in turn, larger animals like leatherback turtles consume them.
ROV pilots recorded this living disco ball at 1,292 meters during the #SamplingGap expedition. An international team traveled to the Romanche Fracture Zone, a 950-km transform fault in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, searching for (and finding) biodiversity hotspots and Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
06 Nov 2026
🌊 What happens when a Mobula ray dies and sinks to the seafloor? A deep-sea feast!.
This is known as a food fall: when the remains of large animals or plants sink to the deep seafloor, providing a sudden source of food for deep-sea animals. Given food is generally scarce in the deep sea, falls are quite the food bonanzas!
We think this is only the fourth deep-sea ray fall to be observed in the world, which makes it a really exciting sight to stumble upon during the Deep Wonders of Trinidad and Tobago expedition!
Sightings like these remind us how connected our ocean is: even surface dwellers can have ‘a second life’ nourishing denizens down in the depths.
Captured during a Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition, the footage will be featured in the upcoming National Geographic (@natgeotv) series, Secrets of the Deep, produced by BBC Studios.
📷 Photo credit: @schmidtocean
#DeepWonders #ray #DeepSea #Science #TrinidadAndTobago
06 Nov 2026
What is water?
In 2005, David Foster Wallace delivered a commencement speech at Kenyon College in the U.S. He opened with an anecdote about two young fish, happily swimming along when an older fish passes by and asks, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?”
The two young fish keep swimming until one of them looks at the other and says, “What the hell is water?”
For the late writer, wisdom lies in the simple awareness of what is real and essential — what is hidden in plain sight all around us. He encouraged the graduates to look more carefully at the seemingly mundane situations around them and choose compassion. “The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about,” Wallace said.
Perhaps these grenadiers have never stopped to contemplate the water around them, but they are adapted to survive in it. Found throughout the global Ocean between about 200 and 4,000 meters, the #SamplingGap science team recorded this footage at 1,580 and 3,326 meters along the Romanche Fracture Zone, a 950-km transform fault within the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Commonly known as rattails, their large blue eyes can spot flickers of bioluminescence that might lead to their next meal. They can also smell decaying organic matter and use their whisker-like chin barbels to detect tiny crustaceans and worms wriggling along the seafloor.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
03 Nov 2026
To vanish: distract.
When danger is suspected, squid produce a large cloud of squidish-shaped ink called a pseudomorph, which literally translates to “false form.” While the predator searches, the cunning squid evades capture.
Dr. Heather Judkins is a cephalopod expert at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Her research focuses on understanding the evolution, ecology, and biogeography of squid, octopuses, and cuttlefish. Her current focus is on the Gulf of Mexico and the wider Caribbean. “So much ink!” she wrote after watching this clip. “It’s great when the schools of squid do this.”
She explains that the presence of ROV SuBastian likely instigated this collective burst of ink, which happens when the animals are startled. If squid deplete their whole ink sac, it can take hours to days to replenish it, depending on the species, Dr. Judkins adds. Squid ink is composed primarily of melanin and mucus.
The #SamplingGap expedition team recorded this inky footage during a recent expedition along the Romanche Fracture Zone, a 950-km transform fault zone along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The area serves as a vital corridor between the eastern and western Atlantic basins, allowing deep-water currents to move between them.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
02 Nov 2026
🪸A coral forest in the deep! 🪸
The #SamplingGap science team has documented lush ecosystems along the Romanche Fracture Zone, an active fault system along the world’s longest underwater mountain range: the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Until this expedition, the area was widely thought to host very little life.
ROV pilots recorded this dense coral garden at a depth of 1,557 meters. While deep-sea corals aren’t plants, these animals function much like trees in a forest on land, structuring complex three-dimensional habitats that shelter other creatures and position them to feed on nutrient-rich currents.
Led by Dr. Jose Angel A. Perez (University of the Itajaí Valley, Brazil) and Prof. Kerry Howell (Plymouth Marine Laboratory, U.K.), the team has been documenting animals thriving among corals and organic falls along the fault zone. Using ROV SuBastian and advanced deep-sea imaging tools, they are revealing bustling seafloor communities that qualify as Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems due to their fragility and slow recovery rates.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
30 Oct 2026
🦐 Not many composers can say they’ve shared a track with a snapping shrimp.
But our newest Alliance member can.
🎻 Chad - @chadwickcannon - is a composer and violinist who writes music for ocean-focused projects and documentaries.
His concert series, Music for the Ocean, weaves real underwater recordings shared by marine scientists into live shows, with animated sea life on the big screen.
🤿 He’s even dived a reef in the morning and composed that same night, to capture his gut reaction to what he’d just seen.
🎃 And just in time for Halloween: watch how spooky a violin can get in his techno dramatisation of life in the Abyssopelagic Zone.
Welcome to the Alliance, Chad! 🎶
#OceanRising #JoinTheAlliance #MusicTheOcean
30 Oct 2026
What lives in the depths of the Romanche Fracture Zone?
Our researchers Telmo Morato, João Balsa and Inês Bruno joined an international team aboard @schmidtocean ‘s R/V Falkor (too) to explore this little-known region of the equatorial Atlantic.
As the expedition comes to an end, we look forward to sharing more from the journey. Stay tuned! 👀
#AzoresDeepSea #OceanExploration #DeepSea #RomancheFractureZone #TheGap
29 Oct 2026
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