". . . Can’t you just spare me your hand tonight at the end of a year of hoarse-voiced owls? You can’t, for technical reasons. So I weave it in the air, warping each finer, the silky peach of the palm and the back, that country of blue trees. That’s how I take it and hold it, as if so much of the world depended on it, the succession of the four seasons, the crowing of the roosters, the love of human beings."
Excerpt from “Happy New Year” by Argentine Poet Julio Cortázar
During an #ArgentinianDeepSeeps dive to explore the Colorado-Rawson submarine canyon wall, ROV pilots filmed this giant phantom jelly, or Stygiomedusa gigantea, at 253 meters. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
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.
🦑 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.
What is the "Innerview"?
For decades, humans looked to space to understand our place within it.
But the most transformative force might actually be found beneath the surface.
In this Special Edition of Oceanographic Magazine, Wendy Schmidt and Jyotika Virmani, alongside over 50 other contributors, dive into the Innerview, seeking to collectively imagine and explain.
Explore the full story in Oceanographic Magazine Issue 48: The Innerview.
Visit @oceanographic_mag to shop the print and digital editions.
@nektonmission #OceanScience #TheInnerview #MarineLife #OceanographicMagazine #ExploreTheBlue
Poetry in Ocean: Swimming ctenophore at 703 meters
…O vento me penteia. (The wind combs my hair).
O sol me doura. (The sun gilds me.)
O barro me sustenta. (The clay sustains me.)
Sou bicho, sou planta, (I am animal, I am plant,)
Sou o que a terra quiser… (I am whatever the earth wants…)
Excerpt from “Anunciação" (Annunciation) by Adélia Prado (1976).
This ctenophore, commonly known as a comb jelly, was observed during the #designingthefuture3 expedition in international waters. The purpose of this expedition — led by Dr. Karen Osborn of the @smithsoniannmnh — was to expedite the discovery of midwater species, gain a deeper understanding of the role of midwater animals in carbon cycling and ocean food webs, and to test technologies for fast and accurate species classification.
Credit: ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
A graceful gossamer worm
For Chief Scientist Dr. Karen Osborn of the @smithsoniannmnh , Tomopteris (commonly known as gossamer worms) are a favorite. Like most of the midwater animals living between 200 meters and 1000, these swooshy swimmers spend their entire lives in the water column. Their movement and speed make her wonder, “How do they do that?”
She describes their bodies as being basically “bags of goo,” and yet they move with remarkable agility. She’s seen more than a few outrun underwater remotely operated vehicles, like SuBastian, with ease. They wiggle their bodies back and forth while paddling their many little extremities, called parapodia, and, according to Osborne, they shouldn’t be able to swim so quickly, but they do.
These musings are the sort of thing that piques her interest and passion for the midwater. “It is not just who is out there, but what are they doing? How are they interacting? How do they function?” she asks.
To answer some of these questions, she and Dr. John Burns of @bigelow_laboratory assembled a multidisciplinary team for the #DesigningTheFuture3 expedition. Over two weeks in April, they tested technologies and methodologies they hope will one day offer scientists a new, non-invasive way to understand the remarkable animals living in the Ocean’s midwater.
Missing something for science? Raid the pantry!
The DesigningTheFuture3 expedition team has been working at a fever pitch. Two ROV dives a day, Tucker trawls (specialized nets that collect zooplankton and critters at specific depths), and all-night, chocolate-fueled sessions in the lab imaging samples, and collecting genetic materials for study.
Given the long hours during the 15-day expedition, you’d think folks might raid the kitchen for snacks, but what about for science supplies? When Dr. John Burns of @bigelow_laboratory and Dr. Manu Prakash of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University found themselves without a molecular stain for imaging, they considered what materials might be on hand to save the day. It turns out, Chef Carl Maxfield had exactly what they needed: Turmeric!
If you’ve ever tried to wash turmeric off something in the kitchen, you’ve seen that it has some staying power. The vibrant golden-orange spice, derived from the golden-orange root (Curcuma longa) in the ginger family, basically adheres to the outside of hard shells, such as those of crustaceans. “It has this compound that fluoresces, so it allows you to see it. Rather than just a color, it's a really bright outline of the animal's exoskeleton,” Burns explains. “The active ingredient in turmeric has its own particular wavelength, and stains specific parts of the cell like the nucleus, the DNA, or the membranes. This helped Prakash create a 3D image of an amphipod.
Thank you, chef!
Credit: Alex Ingle/Schmidt Ocean Institute
Tiny copepods: Big impact!
This is likely a Lophothrix, a copepod measuring about 5 millimeters. For 30 years, Dr. David Fields of @bigelow_laboratory has studied copepods all around the world. Ubiquitous throughout the Ocean, they have adapted to live in many different environments — from mangrove trees to the Antarctic seafloor.
“They’ve kind of solved all the niches that are out there in the world, and so if you’ve got an interesting question, you can go somewhere in the world and poke at it to understand how they’ve made a living.” Dr. Fields says with a grin. “And on top of that, they’re beautiful.”
Copepods are also ecologically important, and studying them offers insights into how the planet works because they recycle a lot of organic matter. They consume the organic carbon produced through photosynthesis, and then, just like us, they respire it out as carbon dioxide (or carry it to ocean depths when consumed by other deep-sea animals). He adds that they serve as very sensitive tools for examining what’s happening to the environment as the planet warms.
But we don’t often get to see them in their natural setting. Some may think it is difficult to make a case for sending out a research vessel with a robot loaded with cameras to search for animals the size of a pencil eraser. However, the #DesigningTheFuture3 expedition took on the challenge of imaging midwater animals, offering the world a new way of seeing the Ocean.
Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
This weekend only.
Join us for Immersion: Artist-at-Sea Weekender — film screenings and immersive installation exploring the intersection of art and ocean science, developed with @schmidtocean to mark ten years of their Artist-at-Sea programme.
Featuring films by @marcobarotti , @julian.charriere , Anne Duk Hee Jordan, @max_hooper_schneider and @emilijaskarnulyte — artists who joined scientific expeditions and worked closely with marine biologists to explore the deepest reaches of the ocean.
Sat 9 – Sun 10 May | 10:00–18:00
In response to group exhibition For All At Last Return.
#BalticGateshead #ArtistAtSea #DeepSeaArt #SchmidtOceanInstitute #Gateshead #ContemporaryArt
Deep Ocean Observing Strategy's - 2026 Virtual Annual Meeting
epoceanobserving.org/pages/2026-annual-meeting
Executive Director of @schmidtOcean Dr. Jyotika Virmani will be on the panel entitled:
The Next Frontiers In Deep Ocean Science: What Will We Discover and How Will We Do It Together?
Thurs, 7 May, 2026 13:55 - 14:55 PM EDT
Most life on Earth lives in a place we can’t see, a place we can’t reach easily, and that we still barely understand. To explore it, we need entirely new ways of seeing.
The Ocean’s midwater lies beneath the sunlit surface waters and the deep seafloor — between 200 meters and 1000. It is the largest habitat by volume on Earth, and for many of the animals living there, the only way to study them is in situ. They are gelatinous, fragile, and often transparent, and they play essential roles in carbon cycles and ocean food webs.
The #DesigningTheFuture3 expedition, led by Dr. Karen Osborn from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, U.S., is using novel technologies mounted on ROV SuBastian and in the labs on board R/V Falkor (too), including EyeRIS and DeepPIV from MBARI’s Bioinspiration Lab. These imaging systems allow scientists to create detailed portraits of the animals in their natural environment.
(Watch the full four-minute video via the link in our bio.)
