These starbursts aren't fireworks, they're Sunflower sea stars! Populations are still recovering from sea star wasting disease, so every sighting of them is exciting. Here’s to a safe, happy 4th of July and a future where these stars continue to shine! 🎆🌊🚢🧪 PC: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive R1756, V14

Learn about the Regional Cabled Array operated by the University of Washington with this short film written, directed, and produced by Sarah Smith. Full video on our YouTube channel (link in bio). 🌊🧪🚢

This week we took a quick trip Lake Washington to calibrate an echosounder for deployment this summer. A tungsten carbide sphere was dangled below the boat and moved around in the “beams” produced by the transducers. Stay tuned for cruise updates in August! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Vardaro & M. White, UW, V26

Creating A Shared Consciousness About the Oceans - New Ways to Interact with the Oceans, produced in 2014 by UW Oceanography undergraduates Katie Bigham and Jessie Turner as part of the Ocean 411 Seagoing Research and Discovery Class. They sailed on Leg 1 of the OOI-NSF-UW VISIONS'14 Expedition. 🚢🧪🌊

Pretty pink predatory polyps! Unlike hard corals that thrive in shallow, sunlit areas, soft corals do not build reefs and thrive in the deep ocean. These colorful colonial carnivores attach to hard surfaces and grab food with their tentacles. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1668 (V24), J2-1542 (V23)

Dolphins frolicking at sunset! A pod of Short-beaked common dolphins leaps and swims in synchrony off the bow of the R/V Atlantis, as the sun sets over the open ocean in the NE Pacific. 🌊🧪🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; V25; edited by O. Parsons (UW)

Rattail fishes swim alongside the ROV at Axial Seamount. Rattails are highly efficient swimmers attracted to any disturbance, so they are one of the most commonly seen fish during deep-sea operations. But we never get tired of watching them! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1729, V25; ed: E. Pinneo (UW)

Happy Mother’s Day from the OOI Regional Cabled Array team to all the moms in marine science and around the world. Here we see an early RCA team member at work, learning that oceanography is fun for everyone! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. White, University of Washington, V25.

Remarkable communities thrive in perpetual darkness in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field at Axial Seamount during the RCA 2025 summer expedition. The underwater hot springs emit >300°C fluids nearly a mile beneath the oceans’ surface! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1728, V25; ed. by E. Pinneo (UW)

Tanner crabs scuffle by a soft coral on a 60 m limestone pinnacle at S. Hydrate Ridge (~800 m depth) methane seep site. The larger crab is caught mid-molt and its smaller foe, emboldened by a stylish anemone headpiece, comes in swinging. 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25; ed: O. Parsons (UW)

A spider crab, living >6000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, climbs down a precipice at the edge of the Dymond hydrothermal vent field near the base of Axial Seamount. These crabs are slow moving but major predators and scavengers at Axial! 🧪🌊🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1650, V24, ed. by E. Pinneo

Two opalescent nudibranchs navigate across platforms on the Regional Cabled Array shallow profiler moorings (200 m depth) near the base of the Cascadia Margin and Axial Seamount. See more biology videos and photos on our website and YouTube channel! (link in bio) VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, V25 🌊🚢🧪

The OOI-RCA has 3 Shallow Profiler Moorings: an instrumented platform at 200 m depth and a winched Science Pod containing 9 sensors that travels to near surface and back 9 times daily: to date, >55,000 profiles traversing >32 million meters! Learn more on our website (link in bio) 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/CSSF

March is #womenshistorymonth! The 2026 theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” and we are celebrating the leadership and contributions of the women leaders of the OOI Regional Cabled Array, as well as all women in sustainability efforts across STEM fields. 🌊🚢🧪

Stunning jellies photographed at Southern Hydrate Ridge during the 2025 RCA cruise. Pic 1 is a Dinner Plate jelly, active hunters that can grow to 8 inches across; Pic 2 is Voragonema pedunculata, a small red jelly that can have up to 2000 tiny tentacles! 🌊🚢🧪 PC1 & 2: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1744, V25

A white Neptunea snail crawling near Southern Hydrate Ridge, and another sitting on top of its yellow egg case. When they find suitable rocks, the snails create huge nurseries of 8-12" towers, each containing thousands of eggs, before they topple off and die. 🌊🚢🧪🐌 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25

Our VISIONS’25 UW Oceanography students included some amazing artists who helped boost morale and maintain shipboard mental health via creative pursuits! Their incredible creations included a) two octopuses and a rattail by Oliver Parsons and b) a blue heron and secretary bird by Leo Couchon. 🌊🚢🧪

Deborah Kelley, UW oceanography prof & director of the NSF OOI-RCA, was awarded the 2026 Wallace S. Broecker Medal on Feb. 24 by The Oceanography Society, recognizing her scientific, educational, and mentorship contributions to marine science. Congrats Deb! 🌊🚢🧪 environment.uw.edu/news/2026/02...

Come learn about ocean science, hear from OOI-RCA Director Deb Kelley (awarded the Broecker Medal), and attend the OOI Facilities Board Town Hall (ooifb.org/meetings/ooi...) at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. See you there! 🌊🚢🧪

This deep-sea octopus wants to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day on behalf of the OOI Regional Cabled Array team! ❤️ 🌊🚢🧪

Feeding frenzy! A swarm of hagfish tear apart a N Pacific Frostfish (?) at Hydrate Ridge offshore of OR. They look like eels but evolved ~550 million years ago, before sharks and bony fish! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J-1719, V25; thanks to Dr. Brian Sidlauskas (Tulane) for the tentative carcass ID!

The Inferno edifice in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field in 2025. Superheated fluids streaming out of the chimneys contain dissolved gases and metals used by microbes within chemosynthetic organisms, which can completely encase sensors faster than you’d expect! PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J-1707, V25 🌊🚢🧪

Fried Egg or “Egg-Yolk” jelly seen by the ROV Jason at Axial Base. These large jellyfish feed on other jellies and inverts at deep-water sites, and other species often live on or around them for protection. 🌊🚢🧪 More videos: www.youtube.com/@interactive... PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI: J-1709, V25

R/V Atlantis SSSG Allison Heater helps V’25 student Nate Bodensteiner and RCA scientist Joe Duprey cock Niskin bottles for water sampling at Axial Seamount (2600 m depth). Analyses of the recovered fluids help verify data from the RCA moorings and seafloor sensors. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, UW, V25

Two roughtail skates sit in the mud among carbonate rubble at Southern Hydrate Ridge. These shark relatives are often seen lying partially buried on the seafloor at productive sites like this, where their prey (shellfish, worms, and small fish) are abundant. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1715, V25

VISIONS students help tech Alex Rose (2nd from left) prep a “Mosquito” instrument. It injects dye into the seafloor at Southern Hydrate Ridge then sucks fluid into coiled tubes to measure sediment seawater flow. It's complicated to assemble so more hands are always helpful! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, UW, V24

One month in a minute and a half! Enjoy this video highlight reel from our 2025 OOI-RCA maintenance cruise, and check out our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@interactive...) for more underwater video and sea life highlights. Happy Holidays! 🌊🚢🧪

A lava "whirlpool" formed during the 2011 Axial Seamount eruption and frozen in time. When subsurface magma erupts onto the seafloor as 1200°C lava, it hits near-freezing seawater and crusts over with a layer of glass, forming incredible river-like shapes! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF/OOI/WHOI; J2-1737, V25.

VISIONS'25 student technicians Alex Rose and Emily Pinneo help sample diffuse fluids entrained in a recovered osmosampler from the ASHES hydrothermal field. The samples provide a year-long record of hydrothermal fluid composition. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25

Crustacean love! Two Dungeness crabs we encountered in a mating posture during a dive at the Oregon Shelf (80 m) site. PC: UW/NSF/OOI/WHOI, J2-1742, V25. 🌊🚢🧪

UW RCA student worker Jolee Thirtyacre and one of our VISIONS’25 students assisting with CTD water sample processing. VISIONS students experience life at sea, stand ROV watches, and assist with many aspects of science conducted onboard the ship. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.

On October 24, 2025 the RCA team participated in One Ocean Week Seattle aboard the historic sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen, Norway! Over 200 people came to view poster presentations and demonstration tables-ours included! 🌊🚢🧪

ROV video of an absolute mob of sablefish (black cod) swirling around the OOI-RCA benthic experiment package (BEP) at our Oregon Offshore site, about 40 miles offshore and 582 m deep. The yellow frame contains 8 different cabled oceanographic sensors. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1741, V25 🌊🧪🚢

The UW-RCA group just spent about a week turning OOI equipment at Axial Seamount, an active volcano about 200 miles off the Oregon coast. The seafloor in the caldera is covered with fantastic basalt formations, hydrothermal flows, and unique biological communities. 🌊🧪🚢

The OOI-RCA cruise has been conducting multiple dives at Axial Seamount (an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast), including deployments at several different hydrothermal vent fields. The weather has been excellent for ROV operations - hopefully that will hold for the next few days!

We visited Southern Hydrate Ridge earlier in the cruise, a dynamic site with active methane venting, exposed gas hydrate (methane ice!), and a diverse biological community - including rockfish, skates, and scavenging hagfish swarming around a sablefish carcass! 🌊🚢🧪

The OOI-RCA Shallow Profiler mooring platforms sit at 200 meters depth, over time becoming midwater islands of biodiversity as organisms like feather stars and nudibranchs settle on the hard surfaces of the flotation and instrument housings. 🌊🚢🧪

Since 2013, the VISIONS program has allowed more than 260 students to participate in at-sea experiential learning. This year we have 11 excellent students sailing with us as part of the UW’s educational mission (VISIONS’25), along with UW student technicians who are integral to the work of the RCA.

The 11th O&M Expedition for the cabled component of the NSF-OOI has begun, 7/31 - 8/31/2025! Live video from the R/V Atlantis & Jason ROV can be seen here: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions25-li... 🌊🧪🚢 PC 1: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V25. PC 2: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25

Learn about the most instrumented underwater volcano in the world, and the work being done by the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative, on the front page of CNN today. We'll be heading out to visit Axial Seamount this summer, so stay tuned! www.cnn.com/2025/05/08/s...

Welcome to the NSF-funded OOI Regional Cabled Array Bluesky account! Follow along for never-before-seen photos and ocean science content 🌊🧪🚢 For more from OOI Regional Cabled Array Cruises: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/images-visio...