Happy Ctenophore day! A couple aulococtena, a bloody belly lampocteis, and a benthic ctenophore. #ctenophoreday

So the yellow is a sphryion parasitic copepod. But whatever those white things are are parasitizing the parasite!

@echinoblog.bsky.social Hey Chris! Watching an old dive from NOAA in 2019. I couldn’t figure out how to spell what you were calling the sea star? would you be able to tell me? It’s pretty awesome looking. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this yet!

For those that don’t know what I was talking about with phaeodarians, radiolarians and foraminifera. Here are a couple pictures. The first is what I mistakenly thought was a radiolarian but is actually a phaeodarian. The other is a foraminifera. Dive 897 #LivingBioreactors @schmidtocean.bsky.social

@cadurkin.bsky.social Aloha! I have questions. (sorry I couldn’t send a DM) I believe you are the protist person on the SOI expedition. So I’ve started going down this rabbit hole of radiolarian vs phaeodarian, trying to understand the difference. Prior to your saying phaeodarian, I’ve never …. 1/

Happy International Squid Day!

Happy International Squid Day!

Happy Nautilus Night! Credit for reel @oceana.bsky.social

Happy World Octopus Day! I know I have put a bunch up. Last one!

Happy World Octopus Day!

Happy World Octopus Day!

Happy World Octopus Day! (I wasn’t kidding when I said I had a ton of octopus photos for OCTOber) 😆

Happy World Octopus Day!

Happy World Octopus Day! I have no shortage of octopus pictures to share today. Octopus and amazing, beautiful, and so very smart. Thank you to @schmidtocean.bsky.social @nautiluslive.org @oceannetworks.ca @nepdep_ for taking us along on your journeys as we have seen these amazing animals!

#NEPDEP South Winona Ridge off the Canadian Pacific coast. Dive Y00043. Final shot for the dive. A beautiful opisthoteuthis flapjack octopus. 🥰 #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

#NEPDEP South Winona Ridge off the Canadian Pacific coast. Dive Y00043. Tanner crab, sea star with a beautiful zoom, and this weird gastropod… had amphipods, weird clear blobs and an anemone on it, but no idea what type of gastropod. #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

#NEPDEP South Winona Ridge off the Canadian Pacific coast. Dive Y00043. That anemone it’s just so pretty and with a zoom, “resting fish face” thornyhead, and an eel pout with a corallimorph. #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

#NEPDEP South Winona Ridge off the Canadian Pacific coast. A tanner crab, a shot of a hagfish mouth with a crab, a flatfish, and a demosponge covered in amphipods with what appears to be a radiolarian (or foraminifera) next to it. #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

More from #NEPDEP South Winona Ridge off the Canadian Pacific coast. A thornyhead zoom so close you can see sensory appendages on its face, an anemone with something weird going on (😂double decker), and an eelpout. #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

#NEPDEP is diving on South Winona Ridge today off the Canadian pacific coast. A rough tail skate, looks to be a eelpout, a thornyhead fish with a sea star, and a beautiful anemone. #PacificOcean #DeepSeaCreatures #DeepSea #OceanExploration

🦑 This baby is COLOSSAL! 🦑 First confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat. Filmed at about 600m near the South Sandwich Islands during the #SouthSandwichIslands expedition. youtu.be/lzPoG9H8Hlo

A squid (psychroteuthis?) and a beautiful relicanthus anemone (my fave anemone). They have very long tentacles that taper down to a very thin and can start curly q. And those tentacles can be over 2 m long.

Made it to dive 799! Close up of a pycnogonid sea spider and its proboscis. A lovely zoom on an acorn worm, a beautiful purple colored sea cucumber. And an odd pink lobster-like crustacean. #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

The octopus in this area all have those leeches on them. That Antarctic Sun star was fishing! You can see a fish it caught. And then an anemone with some sea cucumbers uniquely positioned next to it. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Don’t see striped pycnogonid sea spiders amid bryozoans often, a closeup of an Antarctic sun star Labidiaster, and a couple shots of a glacial Psychroteuthis squid! So cool to see different than normal cephs. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

So far behind (expedition is over). These are dive 798. A corallimorph that caught a shrimpy meal, near fish, and then the tail of a fish chillin inside a sponge. #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Ok, What the heck?? Some weird ball like growths on this Brisingid. @echinoblog.bsky.social From the live dive of Okeanos off the southern coast of Oahu at 600ish meters.

All the octopuses in this area had leech parasites all over them. A bunch of isopods on that funky looking sponge. A Rockwall just covered in corals and sponges. And a large pycnogonid sea spider. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

The Antarctic sunstars Labidiaster are massive! The grenadier fish has two sphyrion parasitic copepods on it (and those long trailing pieces are gonads!). And a large tunicate that I don’t know the genus of. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Beautiful umbellula, an anemone, osedax (?) bone worms! Look at that size of the polychaete worm!! Suggested it was eulagisca gigantea! Do I have any worm peeps that can confirm? I have never seen one with its scales on Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Lovely shot of a sea mouse (laetmonice?), and an umbellula. I had originally thought the last one was an anemone, but the tentacles are feathery and someone suggested a burrowing sea cucumber? @echinoblog.bsky.social #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

They were calling the first animal a sponge, but it looked gelatinous. They did collect it. Also a Slosarcyzkovia squid, thouarella primnoid coral, and an octopus that had parasites. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Yesterday was the first SOI dive of the new expedition. Started off with a bang! Right off the bat was a siphonophore (looks almost erenna-like, but also not 😂) and a gonatus antarcticus squid. Dive 798 #SouthSandwichIslands #MarineLife #AtlanticOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social #Siphonophore

Things you can find (at least at times) in the midwater. Gorgeous shot of a periphylla jelly. A couple of an alluroteuthis squid (with some color changing effects), and one of a plunderfish. Dive 793 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Stygiomedusa!!! AKA Giant phantom jelly. They are not very common to see, and SOI saw two back to back! These guys get to be huge. The bell can be 1 meter across, and arms up to 10 meters long! Dive 793 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

This stalked crinoid had all kinds of commensal organisms. Crew said the pink animals were flatworms, and then there all the isopods vs amphipods (not the greatest at telling them apart). Dive 790 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

This anemone stood out as different from the rest of them. Even the stock of the anemone with its striated appearance was interesting. Dive 790 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

On dive 790, SOI saw this lovely outcrop covered in anemones with a large funky shaped glass sponge. On zoom, there was a cool isopod on the glass sponge. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

A pretty white mushroom coral, a polychete worm on a glass sponge. Then you have a couple pucnogonid sea spiders feeding on anemones. These sea spiders looks a little different than the ones we normally see. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Ooooh look at that isopod! Also a pretty cup coral. Then two animals playing hide and seek: a pycnogonid sea spider hiding behind a hydroid (and another isopod), and an octopus in pancake mode.

Got a couple more cirroctopus. They are just the cephalopod of the expedition! Also a beautiful ctenophore (lampocteis?), and a lovely zoom on some zooanthids that have retracted and surrounded by marine snow. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

SOI saw so many of these Macroptychaster accrescens stars during this expedition. They are so cool looking and big! One was 60cm across. Looks like one of them might be eating. Dive 790. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Last photos from dive 788. I love the glass sponges they have been seeing, so funky. Two different octopuses, not certain on their genus. And a crazy large nemertean worm next to an anemone. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Dive 788 - got some nice shots while SuBastian were surrounded by Antarctic krill. Was so very cool to see. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Some sightings from SOI dive 790. This pink anemone just pops! A cute little fish, some decorative looking brown glass sponges, and a large feather star crinoid with a great view of its cirri holding onto the sponge. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

This glass sponge and ophiuroid observation was just so stunning with the color and backdrop! It is amazing to see such beauty so far down in an area with no natural light. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

MARUM Dive 111 off Milford Sound. That anatomy was actively catching shrimp, beautiful phromosoma (?) urchin, a fish (grenadier?) and some awesome looking stolonifera coral. #NewZealand #MarineLife @marumunibremen.bsky.social

Sea star post! I thought of @echinoblog.bsky.social I think the first one is a Macroptychaster accrescens. It looks like the second one might be feeding on a sponge. And I haven’t seen a star like the last two before. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

They’ve done a lot of close-ups on the solitary hydroids. I find it fascinating to be able to see both the outer and inner ring of tentacles and all the stuff in between that I don’t know the name of. Dive 788. #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social

Still catching up on past dives. A lovely photogenic glass sponge, a swimming crinoid (love the color), a shrimp with a parasite, and a snazzy fish that I haven’t seen before. Dive 788 #AntarcticClimateConnections #MarineLife #SouthernOcean @schmidtocean.bsky.social