DOSI

It’s time for another #MondayMeet, introducing one of the newest members of the DOSI Steering Committee team! 💙 Prior to this role, Christine Gaebel served as both a key member of the DOSI Core Team and co-leader of the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Working Group since 2023. She is an interdisciplinary researcher and ocean governance expert with a background in marine science, science-policy, and international law. Christine earned her PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2025, where she studied science-based approaches for marine biodiversity governance. Currently, she is a research associate with the Nippon Foundation – University of Edinburgh Ocean Voices Programme, a program dedicated to addressing global ocean challenges and providing more sustainable management of the world’s oceans. Welcome to the team Christine! 📷: Christine Gaebel #dosi #deepsea #oceanexploration #scicomm

If deep-sea animals had LinkedIn profiles, which one would get the job? There’s a wide variety of animals that live in the deep sea! Ranging from sharks to corals, to everything in between, and they all have equally important jobs to do. For example, animals like the “headless chicken monster” contribute to nutrient cycling by eating detritus off of marine sediment and leaving clean sediment behind. Other animals, like deep-sea coral species, provide essential habitats for a variety of other deep-sea creatures. So maybe the better question isn’t which one would get the job, but what happens if even one of them doesn’t show up? 📷: Schmidt Ocean Institute, MBARI, NOAA #dosi #deepsea #deepseaanimals #scicomm #scienceeducation

Elusive giant squid (Architeuthis dux) were detected in the water off of Western Australia for the first time in over 25 years using environmental DNA (eDNA)! The expedition, led by researchers from Curtin University, analyzed water samples from the deep Cape Range and Cloates submarine canyons. This discovery marks the northernmost record of the mysterious predator. In addition to this record breaking discovery, the survey also identified 226 species, including rare deep-sea fish and whales. Dozens of these species were previously unknown to science. eDNA holds great potential to reveal the hidden marine biodiversity lurking in deep-sea habitats. To read more about this study, check out the link in our bio! 📷: @noaaoceanexploration #dosi #deepsea #giantsquid #eDNA #scicomm

Hot off the Press: It’s this week’s Deep-Sea Round-Up! Delve into exciting articles spanning topics such as an environmental impact study of deep-sea mining, the faunal community ecology of central-eastern Indian Ocean Seamounts, and the impacts of industrial-scale fishing in the ocean’s twilight zone. On the horizon are some exciting events such as the Marine Imaging Workshop 2026 being held in Gibraltar May 19-21. The first of the new Deep-Sea Biology society seminar series will be held via zoom May 19th at 12:00-13:40 UTC. There will be two talks, “From Basins to Seamounts: A Hierarchical Framework for Deep-Sea Community Structure” Beatriz Mejía-Mercado (Florida State University Coastal and Marine Laboratory), and “Exploring the Hidden Biodiversity of Deep-Sea Vertical Reefs in the Galápagos” - Manuja Hendawitharana (University of Barcelona). The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) is hosting the second of their five part webinar series “Mining the Depths, Undermining Development? The social and economic impacts of deep-sea mining” at 9 am EST/ 3 pm CEST via zoom. This webinar series aims to equip journalists, governments, civil society and decision-makers with the facts, evidence, and context needed to navigate the deep-sea mining debate. The Unseen Ocean Collective have recently opened a free exhibit at the Chase Gallery in Spokane City Hall, America’s Hidden Coral Gardens: The Fine Art of the Deep Sea. The exhibition has now been extended until the end of May! If DOSI members live nearby, they can visit in person – or share with friends who do! To read these full, open access articles and to register for these events and so much more, check out the link in our bio! 📷: An owlfish documented at 1,318 m depth in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Argentina. During the “Animals as Living Bioreactors” expedition, researchers studied various marine species participating in diel vertical migration, where organisms ascend from the depths nightly to feed, then retreat to deeper waters at dawn to avoid predators. Image courtesy of ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute. @schmidtocean #dosi #deepsea #deepocean #DeepSeaRoundUp #Scicomm

Can worms be loving mothers? These bristleworms build tubes to tenderly house their eggs and protect them from predators. When re-examining specimens collected from the Bay of Biscay, Dr Hannelore Paxton and Andrés Arias noticed three species of bristle worms collected from depths of 468-1186m with eggs and/or developing juveniles inside their tubes! Two of these worms, Paradiopatra hispanica and Rhamphobrachium brevibracbiatum, created round tubes with an outer coating of sand, bits of broken shells, and mud. The third worm, Nothria maremontana, created a flattened tube with bivalve shells on its upper surface and shell fragments on its lower surface. This worm pulls itself along the sediment rather than burrowing. It protrudes its head and the anterior part of its body from its tube to drag itself along the seafloor in a motion known as “epibenthic crawling”, much like a caterpillar. 🐛 To learn more about these worms, check out the link in our bio! 📷: A. Arias #dosi #deepsea #bristleworm #marineworm #scicomm

Descend into the deep with #MondayMeet! This week we are featuring Beatriz Naranjo Elizondo, a Costa Rican marine biologist dedicated to advancing deep-sea science and conservation in her region. Beatriz works as an independent consultant and collaborates on deep-sea research at the University of Costa Rica as part of the Deep Ocean Alliance in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Beatriz also co-leads Costa Rica Desconocida (Unknown Costa Rica), an interdisciplinary initiative aimed at strengthening scientific research and building a deeper public connection to these unique and vulnerable ecosystems, promoting their knowledge and conservation. She has published 14 scientific papers spanning topics such as marine and freshwater fish ecology and biodiversity. Her research is focused on tropic ecology, animal behavior, invasion biology, and conservation efforts, particularly in the deep sea. Beatriz also has a passion for filmmaking as a means of science communication. Currently, she is studying audiovisual production to promote conservation and awareness about our blue planet. Beatriz is one of the four new members to join DOSI’s Steering Committee team. We are excited to welcome her aboard! 📷: @schmidtocean SOI / Monika Naranjo Gonzalez #dosi #deepsea #Scicomm #deepseaexploration

Happy Mother’s Day! The deep-sea is filled with strange and wonderful mothers. Some, like the incredible octo-mom Graneledone boreopacifica, care for their young for lifetimes! She broods her eggs for 53 months, almost four and a half years. For a human, that would be like being pregnant for 300 years. This is the longest incubation period of any known animal. Other mothers such as the black-eyed squids, Gonatus onyx, know what it means to sacrifice for their young. After laying up to 3,000 eggs in a large, dark sack, she clings to them tightly as she swims. This helps protect her eggs from predation but it blocks her mouth, preventing her from feeding. The mother squid usually dies shortly after her eggs hatch. To learn more about these amazing mothers, check out the link in our bio! 📷: MBARI @mbari_news #MothersDay #DOSI #DeepSea #Scicomm

Sir David Attenborough, whose narration brought some of the world’s least accessible environments to a global audience, turns 100 today, May 8, 2026. Across decades of natural history broadcasting, and particularly through Blue Planet II, Attenborough brought global attention to the biodiversity of the deep ocean: bioluminescent fishes, deep-sea squid, whale-fall scavengers, brine pools, and life adapted to the hadal depths of the Mariana Trench. Blue Planet II became one of the most influential natural history documentaries ever released, significantly increasing public awareness of marine conservation issues, particularly plastic pollution and broader anthropogenic impacts on ocean ecosystems, which became widely known as the “Blue Planet effect”. Today we celebrate a century spent documenting, explaining, and advocating for life on Earth and beneath its oceans. Happy Birthday, Sir David Attenborough! 📸 DFAT, CC BY 4.0. Attenborough during filming on the Great Barrier Reef in 2015. #deepsea #deepocean #blueplanet #davidattenborough #scicomm

Your weekly Deep-Sea Round-Up has arrived, this week alongside the 26th edition of Deep-Sea Life, a DOSI & @dsbsoc production. In this week's #DeepSeaRoundUp, explore the latest research on linking deep-sea biological communities and ecosystem services, silvery lightfish genetics, symbiotic dynamics between hydrothermal vent snails and chemosynthetic bacteria, and much more! #DeepSeaLife edition 26 features amazing projects, encompassing genetics, zoological etymology, habitat restoration, ocean literacy, and more. Once again, we are truly thankful for the dedication and diversity of this community and their fascinating and thought-provoking new publications and opinion pieces for all audiences. Find the Round-Up and Deep-Sea Life at the link in bio! 📸 @noaaoceanexploration - the. deep-sea coral Paragorgia arborea. #deepsea #deepocean #dosi

The answer is in the name! Collected in 2017 by scientists aboard the RV Investigator and formally described earlier this year, Greyjoyella mundugalae is a tiny shrimp-like crustacean found in deep-sea sediments off the east coast of Australia at depths of 3881–4026 metres (12,733–13,209 ft). Its genus name, Greyjoyella, is inspired by House Greyjoy from Game of Thrones (GOT). In the same paper, Gellert et al. also introduced two genera named after the GOT Houses Martell and Arryn. The species name, mundugalae, comes from Mundugala, a spirit in Australian Indigenous mythology associated with water and the deep. It's a perfect example of how scientific discovery and human culture are deeply intertwined. Read more in the full open-access paper at the link in bio. 📸 Gellert et al., 2026. Fig. 10. #deepsea #deepocean #newspecies #crustaceans #gameofthrones

For this week's #MondayMeet, we are thrilled to reintroduce Hannah Lily as she steps into her new role on the DOSI Steering Committee team! Hannah is a lawyer specialising in ocean law, particularly deep-sea mining, and brings more than 25 years of experience across governments, NGOs, and intergovernmental organisations. She has been part of the DOSI community since 2014, where she previously sat on the Advisory Board and continues to play an active role in the Minerals Working Group. Her legal insight and knowledge add great strength to DOSI’s efforts at the science-policy interface. When asked in a 2021 interview with DOSI about her favourite deep-ocean habitat, Hannah replied: It has to be active hydrothermal vents. Do I need to add a ‘because’?? Because everything about them is crazy! I love that we only just (in the 1970s) found out about all these weird ‘smoking’ chimney structures in the first place. Then the fact that – rather than being deserted because of their temperatures and toxicity – they are absolutely mobbed by animals. Thirdly, the absolute strangeness of those animals and their adaptations to those extreme conditions! When I give talks about Law of the Sea, and I see people’s eyes glaze over, I find that if I can just digress into a description of tube-worms or the scaly-foot snail, the audience perks right back up again! 📸 Hydrothermal vent: ROV SuBastian / @schmidtocean #DOSI #deepsea #deepocean #oceanlaw

Meet some stunning creatures from the world’s largest daily migration: a macrourid larva (baby grenadier fish), a siphonophore, a squid, a ctenophore and an owlfish! Every night, vast numbers of fish, shrimp, and gelatinous creatures rise from deeper waters to feed, then retreat back down by dawn, transporting carbon with them and helping regulate the Earth's climate. But what happens inside the guts of these animals, and how does it impact carbon storage in the deep sea? Led by Dr. Anitra Ingalls (University of Washington), the @schmidtocean Living Bioreactors expedition earlier this year aimed to investigate the gut microbiomes of vertically migrating animals, and how these microscopic communities transform organic matter and influence carbon storage in the deep ocean. Working in the deep waters off South America aboard R/V Falkor (too), and using ROV SuBastian alongside trawls, acoustics, and water sampling, the team aimed to quantify how much carbon is captured through this daily migration and better understand its role in the global carbon cycle. 📸 ROV SuBastian / @schmidtocean #deepsea #deepocean #livingbioreactors #deepseacreatures #deepseafish