Spotlight: Starfish Tracks in the Nitinat Canyon

Image by Christopher Mah, from NOAA's Okeanos research vessel in the Nitinat Canyon, Pacific Ocean Zoom in on the photo and realize that all those tiny holes and dents on the right side of the starfish are actually starfish footprints! Or podia prints, to be biologically precise.While NOAA's ocean exploration vessel Okeanos was recently plying …

Anemone Bouquet for the Equinox

To celebrate the vernal equinox and the start of spring in the northern hemisphere ... and the autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere ... here's a bouquet of beautiful, flower-like anemones from NOAA Ocean Exploration, the Ocean Agency's Ocean Image Bank, Cinzia Osele Bismarck, and Greg Piper."But don’t be fooled – you won’t find sea …

Pic o’ the Week: Gummy Squirrel in the Pacific Ocean

It's a slug, it's an alien ... it's a Gummy Squirrel! Yes -- it's a sea creature!This sea cucumber, aka gummy squirrel {Psychropotes longicauda}, was spotted by the NOAA Okeanos research vessel crew at 5,100 meters (3.2 miles) depth while exploring abyssal sediments in the western Clarion-Clipperton Zone of the central Pacific Ocean. This gummy …

Spotlight: World Jellyfish Day

This species of jelly was seen throughout the dive and during the 500 meter water column transect of Dive 15 for the Windows to the Deep 2018 expedition, NOAA Ocean Exploration O Jelly FishDancing in the nightTheir tentacles long and sheer…… Beauty in the deep ~by Molly Cooper This beautiful, big medusa, seen during Dive 15 of …

Spotlight: Deep-Sea Coral Close-up From NOAA Ocean Exploration

NOAA's vessel Okeanos and its crew of scientists, researchers and mariners have been exploring seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean this month as part of the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts expedition. Thanks to fantastic livestreaming technology, we can watch what they're seeing in real-time as their ROV plies the …