Schmidt Ocean Institute

🌊 Ocean job alert! 🌊 We're hiring a Science Systems Specialist to support cruise planning on R/V Falkor (too) and management of the maritime instrumentation and scientific equipment. Learn more & apply! https://jobs.lever.co/schmidt-entities/ccec45a4-a347-445e-a022-6e0b8045dc56

A new species of siphonophore, recorded at 897 m during the #DesigningtheFuture3 expedition. ROV pilots were able to carefully zoom in on this animal’s nectophores, or swimming bells — these are the group of medusae responsible for propulsion. (Read more: www.instagram.com/reel/DYiP_eB...)

You can read more about this graceful gossamer worm, filmed during #designingthefutute3, and why this animal is Chief Scientist Karen Osborn's favorite via the caption on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/shorts/knSxX...

Tiny copepods: Big impact! This is likely a Lophothrix, a ~5 mm copepod. For 30 years, Dr. David Fields (@bigelowlab.bsky.social) says copepods are ubiquitous throughout the ocean; they've adapted to live in many different environments — from mangrove trees to the Antarctic seafloor.

What do shrimp see? “These guys have completely different eye designs,” according to Dr. Jan Hemmi, a visual neurobiologist. Their large eye size tells Dr. Hemmi and his colleagues that eyes are pretty important to these animals. #designingthefuture3 Read more: www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

ROV SuBastian wants to know if you have voted! We've been nominated for a People's Voice Webby, and you can cast your vote here: vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting...

#PoetryInOcean: “I speak of underneathedness... I speak for the damselfly, water skeet, mollusk, the caterpillar, the beetle, the spider, the ant. I speak from a time before spinelessness was frowned upon.” Camille T. Dungy’s poetry seemed a lovely way to celebrate tiny marvels in the midwater.

A so-fish-ticated catshark, of the freckled variety! Scyliorhinus haeckelii are common fr Bahia Brazil to northern Argentina. Freckled catshark live along the continental shelf as deep as 400 m. Filmed at 202 m, offshore of Uruguay and the Rio del Plata during the #AsgardArchaea expedition.

Swim, sea pig, swim! @echinoblog.bsky.social says this smooth swimmer, fr #ArgentinianDeepSeeps (2864m) belongs to family Elpidiidae, genus Peniagone. The urchin is an Echinothurioid, aka pancake urchin, w/cute "booties" on their spines around the bottom fringe for "walking" on soft sediments.

Lobster eats crab — no butter required 🧈🦀🧈 Argentinian fans dubbed these rose-tinted crustaceans “Barbie lobsters,” and while that is not their scientific name, we are here for it! The team suspects they are Thymops birsteini, filmed at 538 m. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

A fish eater: Erenna is a genus of deep-sea siphonophores; these deep-sea hunters are pescatarians and eat only fish. They rely on bioluminescence to mimic the behavior of tiny copepods, luring fish into range for stinging and snacking. Filmed at 918 m during the 2024 #SEPacificSeamounts expedition.

This seafloor community, 1,073 meters (3,520 feet) beneath the Ocean surface, was filmed during the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps expedition. Scientists were searching for cold seeps. While exploring, they observed beautiful scenes like this and stunning biodiversity along the country’s continental shelf.

We brake for nautilus! “We usually stopped what we were doing whenever we saw nautilus, b/c they are such amazing animals to watch,” said #VisioningCoralSea Chief Scientist Dr. Robin Beaman of James Cook University. This enigmatic cephalopod navigated the depths before dinosaurs roamed the Earth!

#PoetryInOcean for Elvin abyss tunicate "...Who shall hear the wind roaring like leaves of forests; the white rocks snarling in the moon gleaming, in the moon waning, in the moon falling a corpse-candle; the storm mumbling, the abyss moving?” Read abt new species: scripps.ucsd.edu/news/two-scr...

🌊 Marvels in the midwater 🌊 ROV pilots zoomed in on this siphonophore at 755 meters during a recent #OBVI #LivingBioreactors dive offshore of Brazil, offering a breathtaking glimpse of a colonial animal comprised of zooids working in concert to survive and thrive in the deep Ocean.

Scientists estimate that 10 billion tons of fish & half of the ocean’s zooplankton biomass live in the midwater zone (between 100 & 1000 m). Capturing & transporting carbon to the deep, sustaining fisheries, & supporting endangered wildlife are just some of the ecosystem services happening here.

Wow. Foraminifera! ROV pilots paused and carefully zoomed in to collect footage of these single-celled microorganisms, or protists, at 843 m during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social offshore of Argentina. Read the full caption: youtube.com/shorts/Yv_ud...

The first in situ sighting of the Ram’s Horn Squid (Spirula spirula) was collected during our 2020-2021 time in Australian waters, led by Dr. Robin Beaman of James Cook University. www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/12...

Carbon transport, by squid This is a Teuthowenia pellucida, according to Rachel Chen, from the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors team. After glass squids make the daily trip to surface waters to feed, they return to depths, transferring carbon from the surface ocean to the deep sea.

Aulacoctena ​​Gabriela Mistral’s “Weaving the Round” (translated by Ursula K. Le Guin) “Where shall we go to weave the round? Shall we go down to the ocean beach? The sea'll dance in a thousand waves to make us an orange-blossom wreath." #OBVI #LivingBioreactor 1201 m

All ink, no stink! Squid ink is a natural, dark-viscous fluid primarily composed of melanin pigment, mucus & water — like a deep-sea smoke screen for a hasty getaway. These ink-blob shapes are called pseudomorphs. Filmed during #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/@schmidtsciences.bsky.social.

This is the most boring reel (but it isn’t)! For #OBVI #LivingBioreactors Chief Scientist Anitra Ingalls & team, footage like this changes her view of the Ocean. Each tiny particle of marine snow (decaying organic matter) contains an entire invisible ecosystem.

The #OBVI #LivingBioreactors science team spent a little over a month aboard R/V Falkor (too) in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina, with support from ‪@SchmidtSciences‬ Ocean Biogeochemistry Virtual Institute. Watch the full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMlZ5qe69pU

A larval Macrourid sighting at 917 m! ROV pilots filmed future-fish during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition, supported @schmidtsciences.bsky.social. Scientists are studying midwater organisms and how they sequester carbon.

Follow the rainbow into the deep! This Cestum sp. — also known as the Venus girdle ctenophore — is one of the largest of the comb jellies in our global Ocean. ROV pilots filmed it during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition with @schmidtsciences.bsky.social

Jaw-dropping jellyfish, Poralia sp, 1,414m (ID, Dr. Anela Choy) “There are many mysteries to uncover,” Choy writes. “But perhaps this beautiful brownish, reddish medusae has a unique role to play in connecting carbon flow between the deep water column with the seafloor.” #OBVI #LivingBioreactors

Celebrating ROV SuBastian's 900th scientific dive since completing sea trials in 2016. Seen in this milestone dive during #LivingBioreactors — a single-celled organism called Foraminifera, a “berried” crustacean (translation: shrimp carrying eggs), several dazzling jellyfish, & a string of salps.

This is a Labichthys snipe eel. Like many of the animals studied during the #OBVI #LivingBioreactors expedition w/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social, Labichthys shelter in the depths & make a daily migration to feed near surface waters at night. Read full caption: youtube.com/shorts/zWjxE...

“Like a firefly in the middle of a field filled with noise, its shining, latent light within, a tiny bell, small and soundless. I fade away so that you may lose yourself. I fold myself into my wings.” Poem by Pedro Serrano, trans. by Don Cellini. Psychedelic jellyfish, #argentiniandeepseeps, 3804 m

Riding High! During the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps expedition, ROV pilots captured footage of a tiny animal, likely a crustacean, riding a jellyfish like a surfboard. Jellyfish = protection w/their stinging tentacles & access to food while traveling & “shooting the curl” (as surfers would say).

Skeleton shrimp: superior snackers This amphipod in the family Caprellidae, has feather-like setae line several of their 18 appendages for collecting food — amphipod translates to “feet on all sides” in Greek. #argentiniandeepseeps ~1200 meters

A fishy escape fr #ArgentinianDeepSeeps "The question, O me! so sad, recurring — What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here — that life exists, and identity; That the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse." - Walt Whitman

Sampling among the stars! During the #Taleof2Canyons expedition, curious fish nibbled on sediments as ROV SuBastian pilots collected push core samples from a seafloor lined with brittle stars.

Animals as Living Bioreactors expedition is underway! W/ @schmidtsciences.bsky.social, scientists are eager to learn more about the role of midwater animals, like this gossamer worm, in carbon transport. Read more & subscribe to our YouTube for ROV dive updates here: youtube.com/post/Ugkx_Vw...

Multiple Choice Monday Why is this tiny fish not the octopus’s next tasty snack? a. This tiny fish tastes funny. b. Sleepy cephalopod, will eat later. c. Sated cephalopod, still digesting last tasty fish. d. Write in answers: correct & incorrect ones will be enjoyed equally.

Thanks to the dedicated and tireless work of our crew on board R/V Falkor (too) supporting a worldwide array of researchers and scientists — we’re working daily to boldly explore our unknown ocean, every day! #OceanExplorationDay Read more: www.linkedin.com/posts/schmid...

Two skate passing in the dark. Between 200 and 145 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, these cartilaginous fish emerged — part of the class Chondrichthyes, which also includes sharks, stingrays, and chimaeras. ROV pilots filmed these at skate 432 meters during #ArgentinianDeepSeeps

Float like a glass squid. What might it feel like to reach a state where your body’s density perfectly matches your surroundings? Their buoyant bodies are filled with ammonium chloride, which is lighter than seawater, helping them to conserve energy while traveling. 1,729 m #ArgentinianDeepSeeps

A bustling seafloor scene from the #taleof2canyons expedition: “We studied how these canyons can facilitate such incredible biodiversity,” said Chief Scientist Dr. Silvia Ines Romero. “What are the mechanisms — the currents and the chemistry — that support all of this life?”

Take a slow ride . . . by snail! Read the full post about this example of mutualistic symbiosis and the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps expedition here: www.instagram.com/reel/DTTbCSp...

Sea squirts & squid! ROV pilots filmed these salps and spectacular squid during the #SouthSandwichIslands expedition with @oceancensus.bsky.social in early 2025. Salps, also known as sea squirts, are ubiquitous throughout the Ocean, and abundant in the Southern Ocean.

Benthic ctenophores clinging to tunicates attached to a submarine canyon wall ~1.75 miles deep, during #ArgentinianDeepSeeps. Platyctenida have colloblasts, or sticky cells that release a mucus-like glue when they unspool extra-long tentacles into the water column and fish for their next meal.

Anyone else feeling tired today? This fish, likely a deep-sea sole — a species of flatfish in the family Pleuronectidae, likes lazing about along muddy bottoms. ROV pilots filmed while exploring a pockmark, or crater, along the seafloor at 460m. #ArgentinianDeepSeeps

ROV pilots filmed this giant phantom jelly, or Stygiomedusa gigantea, at 253 meters during an ROV descent to explore the Colorado-Rawson submarine canyon wall. #ArgentinianDeepSeeps

Let your party streamers fly like a ctenophore! As the year draws to an end, we’re celebrating a year of supporting international teams of scientists on board R/V Falkor (too) off the coasts of Antarctica, the South Sandwich Islands, Argentina, & Uruguay. Happy New Year to all!

Freckled catshark, Scyliorhinus haeckelii, is a common species of shark in Uruguayan waters, according to Dr. David Ebert. He suspects the fish were interested in a parasite dangling off the catshark. Filmed at 227m during #UruguaySUB200

Like a tiny heart beating in time, this deep-sea jellyfish — Periphylla — pulses through the Ocean’s midwater. ROV pilots filmed this luminescent beauty at 920m along Argentina’s continental shelf, off the coast of Buenos Aires #ArgentinianDeepSeeps Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

An unexpected feast! ROV pilots filmed this during the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps expedition. Read the full caption about whalefalls & their role in the deep Ocean on Insta: www.instagram.com/reel/DSlQw1J...

During Dive 878, the #ArgentinianDeepSeeps science team studied & sampled an active pockmark on the seafloor, where liquids & gases were escaping. Their goal: the first & most comprehensive exploration of cold seeps, one of the least-studied deep-ocean ecosystems in SW Atlantic.

ROV pilots filmed this smooth swimming salp at 324m during #AsgardArchaea expedition off the coast of Uruguay. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Sliding into the weekend like this slender fish! Seen during the #AsgardArchaea expedition, ROV pilots captured this footage at 2,180 m. The international team of scientists collected sediment & water samples in their search for the origins of eukaryotic and complex cells.

In January 2025, R/V Falkor (too) carried the #AntarcticClimateConnections expedition team through the famed Drake Passage, into the Bellingshausen Sea. Here's a link to our recently released short film, "Crossing the Divide:" https://youtu.be/C4e3GZkGwxk?si=wccBT82dgY46Y-de

Spectacular strawberry squid! Histioteuthis squid w/massively asymmetrical eyes: 1 larger for viewing the silhouettes of predators & prey above, & 1 smaller eye for capturing glimmers of bioluminescent snacks below. #AsgardArchea - 730m - ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

This fluttery finned fish, possibly from the family Oreosomatidae, was spotted during #AsgardArchaea at around 1000 m. Read more about this expedition led by @archaeal.bsky.social from @texasscience.bsky.social here: https://schmidtocean.org/cruise/searching-for-the-asgard/

#AsgardArchaea team, led by @archaeal.bsky.social fr @texasscience.bsky.social — sequencing the DNA collected fr mouth of Rio de la Plata to the continental shelf of Uruguay to detect Asgards, a group of single-celled organisms & our closest microbial relatives on the tree of life. bit.ly/3MdniTH

Skating into the weekend . . . like a cartilaginous fish! Related to sharks w/wings for hovering & flying over the seafloor & a long, whiplike tail for steering. We see them during ROV dives, burrowed into the sediment, utterly still until they can ambush their next meal. 235m #Taleof2Canyons

This is a sea cucumber eating. This #Taleof2Canyons mealtime footage, collected by ROV pilots at a depth of 142m, offers a perfect illustration of suspension feeding (sped up 5x). The sea cucumber stretches feathery tentacles up into the current to capture their meal.

Monday mayhem! We've never seen a scallop crash into an anemone riding a snail through a seafloor field of brittle stars either — but hey, you explore to see something new, right?! ROV footage from #Ecosde2Cañones expedition along the Patagonian shelf break.

On 21 Nov. 2025, join us for a @schmidtocean.bsky.social Back Ashore webinar w/ Johanna Gutleben, Paul Jensen & Lihini Aluwihare from @scrippsocean.bsky.social, who will share findings from the 2021 #BiodiverseBorderlands expedition. Register now: schmidtocean-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

#Ecosde2Cañones sea life & fish w/antifreeze proteins! “It was wonderful to see the notothenioid fish curiously approach the ROV camera, reminding us that every encounter with marine life is deeply connected to the physical dynamics shaping their environment.” - Chief Scientist Dr. Silvia Romero

A swingin’ seafloor hotspot! 🎶 This #Ecosde2Cañones footage fr the Patagonian shelf break is an excellent example of collective foraging behavior. Fish & other creatures navigate deep-sea currents to access an area rich w/nutrients — these vital energy hubs at the interface of shelf & open Ocean.

A #Taleof2Canyons & an octopus! 186m, Patagonian red octopus, or Enteroctopus megalocyathus, hovering over a patch of sediment, lighter in color than the surrounding area, the cephalopod opened up like an umbrella to feed, likely on a crustacean. Read more: www.instagram.com/reel/DQnH14c...

BOO! 👻🎃👻 No costume for Halloween? No problem. Channel your inner sea urchin: go into your closet (or sunken treasure chest), and throw on all the outfits at once! A few clams, some snails, and carnivorous sponges for drama ought to help keep your fellow partiers in high spirits. #Ecosde2Cañones

A little terror for your Tuesday! Basket star filmed by ROV pilots at ~270 m during the #Taleof2Canyons — these many-armed ophiuroids capture prey w/ease. Escape is unlikely thanks to tiny hooks & sticky mucus-covered limbs. Once ensnared, tube feet shuttle the meal towards the animal’s mouth.

...like water or glass that turns into anything, into smoke, into a spiral, into a building, a fish, a stone, a rose. I am different from me, so different... “Song” by Poet Silvina Ocampo, transl. by Jason Weiss; full poem: granta.com/song/ #Ecosde2CañonesSouth, American sea nettle, 324m

In the “2024 Chapman Survey of American Fears,” sharks ranked 52nd, beating insects/arachnids, reptiles, and public speaking on the list of frightful things. Read our full post, and why we think people should find better things to fear on Insta: www.instagram.com/reel/DP2JS7T...

In honor of World Squid Day, here's a Moroteuthopsis longimana fr #SouthSandwichIslands. International cephalopod awareness days happen each year in Oct — we celebrate octopuses on the 8th, in honor of their 8 arms, and squid on the 10th, to acknowledge their ten appendages (8 arms and 2 tentacles).

In celebration of World Octopus Day, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite cephalopod sightings, the glass octopus — Vitreledonella richardi filmed during a month-long #PhoenixIslandsCoral expedition in 2021.

It may look as if this little one is practicing their dance moves — slow-slow-quick-quick — but we’re pretty sure fish can’t dance. It's more likely this bellowfish, or Notopogon sp., is taking advantage of snacks in the sediments, stirred up by the ROV's robotic arm during #uruguaysub200.