to the sea

Discovery of a New Deep Chemosynthetic Community

Deepwater Canyons Project Science Team

After several days of lost dives due to bad weather and making dives under difficult conditions, we are today in calm seas exploring an area that was discovered last year during a NOAA mapping cruise. While conducting a seafloor survey, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer found bubbles coming from the seafloor at a site south and offshore of Norfolk Canyon; they thought these bubbles may indicate a new methane seep site, but they had no way of verifying this idea.

Today, we deployed the Jason remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from the NOAA Ship Ron Brown to 1,600 meters (nearly a mile deep—our deepest dive yet!) to explore the area around those bubbles. After transecting over soft sediment for a short time, we saw some indications that we were getting close to a probable methane seep. These indications included white patches of bacteria on the sediment surface that feed on the methane and sulfides, plus shells of dead mussels, which are the dominant animals of methane seep communities…

(via: NOAA Ocean Explorer)

(photos: Deepwater Canyons 2013 - Pathways to the Abyss, NOAA-OER/BOEM/USGS)

100leaguesunderthesea: Blue spotted sting ray by Novikov...

Sun, 12 May 2013 20:59:48 -0400

100leaguesunderthesea:

Blue spotted sting ray by Novikov Sergey

thelovelyseas: Stingray by horen.dahab

Sun, 12 May 2013 11:31:50 -0400

thelovelyseas:

Stingray by horen.dahab

erosboros: Kelp Forest by Lee Root

Sat, 11 May 2013 12:32:20 -0400

Kelp Forest by Lee Root

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lar3/

erosboros:

Kelp Forest by Lee Root

trynottodrown: by Giovanni Trezzi

Tue, 07 May 2013 10:21:45 -0400

trynottodrown:

by Giovanni Trezzi

thelovelyseas: DSC_3737.dwl by dwlitchfield on Flickr.

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:16:55 -0400

thelovelyseas:

DSC_3737.dwl by dwlitchfield on Flickr.

thelovelyseas: Minke Whale 3 by Len2040 on Flickr.

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:11:23 -0400

thelovelyseas:

Minke Whale 3 by Len2040 on Flickr.

Photo

Fri, 03 May 2013 01:08:04 -0400

100leaguesunderthesea: Wolf Eel by Damian D. on Flickr.

Wed, 01 May 2013 21:43:55 -0400

100leaguesunderthesea:

Wolf Eel by Damian D. on Flickr.

alittledirtneverhurt: Photograph by D-Photo

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:12:29 -0400

alittledirtneverhurt:

Photograph by D-Photo

Photo

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:58:37 -0400

A pod of rare false killer whales swims off the coast of Paihia...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 00:41:54 -0400

A pod of rare false killer whales swims off the coast of Paihia in the Bay of Islands, in New Zealand’s North Island. False killer whales are a cetacean species rarely encountered in the wild. They swim in the open ocean often socialising with oceanic bottlenose dolphins. New Zealand’s Bay of Islands is a popular tourist destination for dolphin and whale watching

underthevastblueseas: by Saeed Rashid

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 15:54:03 -0400

underthevastblueseas:

by Saeed Rashid

100leaguesunderthesea: by Mgungen

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 12:53:01 -0400

100leaguesunderthesea:

by Mgungen

mellomymind: Aaron Ansarov’s incredible photographs of...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:24:21 -0400

mellomymind:

Aaron Ansarov’s incredible photographs of Portuguese Man O’Wars

100leaguesunderthesea: 2 humpbacks by jessejosephsimons on...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:12:32 -0400

100leaguesunderthesea:

2 humpbacks by jessejosephsimons on Flickr.