This delicate sponge has a remarkably clever survival strategy.🪝✨️⁠ ⁠ Most sponges filter small plankton and bacteria from the water and pump them through their bodies. But the harp sponge (Chondrocladia lyra) uses small hooks along its vertical branches to trap and eat larger prey.

@uwsafs.bsky.social & Friday Harbor Labs are now advertising for an assistant professor position with a specialty in marine invertebrate organismal biology. @csucoast.bsky.social @uscwrigley.usc.edu @scrippsocean.bsky.social @mbarinews.bsky.social @woods.stanford.edu @ucdmarinescience.bsky.social

A different kind of holiday hustle and bustle 🐟️💫⁠ ⁠ The deep seafloor is one of the largest habitats on this planet and home to an amazing array of unique communities and geological features. One of MBARI’s fundamental missions is to use and create sophisticated technology to study the deep ocean.

First ROV science mission for R/V David Packard ✅ After months of work to integrate the ROV Doc Ricketts, our team conducted the first ROV science dives from our flagship research vessel during an expedition with our partners at @montereybayaquarium.org. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/mbari-c...

Dive in with MBARI for some of the most stunning deep-sea sightings we made in 2025 📽️✨️ This year, our team spotted a dazzling variety of deep-sea denizens. These fascinating finds underscore the remarkable diversity of life in the ocean. Watch here: youtu.be/_SV6sGV1Pbw?...

Just another tiny deep-sea bestie 🥰⁠ From icy polar zones to the darkest ocean depths, these miniature wonders can thrive in habitats where few other animals survive. Amphipods are crustaceans often mistaken for tiny shrimp, but they are laterally compressed and have no carapace.

Sea star pile-up. ⭐️⁠ ⁠ These brittle stars are mud-loving animals, often found crawling across the muddy plains of the seafloor. This group of sea stars, known as Ophiuroidea, boasts a diverse number of species—more than 2,000 different species!

Be the chainge you wish to see in the world. ⁠✨ ⁠ Salps are gelatinous animals that live in the open ocean and often form long chains, with new animals budding off from others in the chain. This rarely observed Helicosalpa virgula was captured on camera at a depth of 282 meters (925 feet).

Come ☀️ or 🌧️, a great first month @mbarinews.bsky.social working with the Piscivore system to autonomously observe marine predators and their environment ... stay tuned for 🐟🦈🐋🦭 & more!

Fresh from the deep—a rarely seen giant in Monterey Bay. 🤩 Last month, MBARI Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and the Biodiversity & Biooptics Team spotted a seven-arm octopus (Haliphron atlanticus) holding a crimson helmet jelly (Periphylla periphylla). Learn more: www.mbari.org/animal/seven...

The best way to spread deep-sea cheer is by sending tubeworm videos to those you hold dear. 🎁 Tubeworms like these Oasisia alvinae are abundant at hydrothermal vents at depths of 3,700 meters (12,140 feet) in the Pescadero Basin, located off the east coast of Mexico’s Baja California.

🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 ‘Tis the season of deep-sea art! Join @montereybayaquarium.org, @mbarinews.bsky.social, and @fathomverse.bsky.social with these daily deep-sea inspired art prompts. Submit your deep-sea art to our gallery for all to admire! montereybayaquarium.secondstreetapp.com/Gallery-Deep...

ICYMI - our COBRA webinar recording is now posted on YouTube! Olivia Pereira (postdoc at @mbarinews.bsky.social) and I teamed up to talk about #SciComm - “From Abyss to Audience: Science Communication in Deep-sea Research” www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnlx...

Serving up some zooplankton squee 🥰⁠ ⁠ Copepods like the one in this video can be found in massive numbers across the world ocean. They play an important role in ocean food webs as predators—they eat even smaller diatoms and phytoplankton—and prey for animals like jellies, fish, and filter feeders.⁠

Annotated images from the #FathomNetDatabase were used to train and evaluate the new Segment Anything Model 3 (SAM 3), adding complex underwater scenes to the broad training dataset and expanding the variety of environments the model can recognize. 💻🐟 Learn more: www.fathomnet.org/news/open-da...

Peek-a-boo with an octopus and her eggs 🙈 MBARI researchers used ROVs to study pearl octopus (Muusoctopus robustus) mothers nesting near warm seafloor springs. Unlike other deep-sea octopuses, their eggs hatched in under two years. The extra warmth boosted metabolism of the moms and their broods.

MBARI’s software engineers play a vital role in transforming troves of ocean data into meaningful insights. They design and develop the software that powers MBARI’s autonomous robots, imaging platforms, and data pipelines. Learn more about what they do: youtu.be/MpeC74TOyvY

Their findings, published in @natureportfolio.nature.com, reaffirm earlier work by researchers including Steven Haddock of @mbarinews.bsky.social, who have urged the global community to move cautiously in the face of all the uncertainties. mbayaq.co/44cVKEa

Technology innovation is transforming ocean science. This #BlueTechMonth, global experts showcase bold ideas driving the next era of the blue economy. MBARI’s Chris Scholin joins a panel on collaboration and tech. Learn more: tmabluetech.org/bluetech-month-2025

MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius has been elected to Germany’s prestigious Order Pour le Mérite for Science and Arts, recognizing her important contributions to deep-sea and polar sciences. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/mbari-p...

At MBARI, we believe discovery begins with opportunity—the kind that changes lives and careers. Our immersive internship and postdoctoral programs are helping launch the next generation of ocean explorers who are transforming ocean science and technology. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/mbari-o...

MBARI’s mechanical technicians and engineers collaborated closely to build a titanium frame capable of holding cameras, sensors, and instruments used in the SINKER—SINKing Ecology Robot—imaging system, which collects vital carbon data. 🔧 🌊 🔬 Learn more: youtu.be/6_elP8a1o0M?...

Congratulations to the entire GO-BGC team on the 300th float deployment! 🎉 GO-BGC is an NSF-funded project to build a global network of chemical and biological sensors that will monitor ocean health. Learn more and download data at www.go-bgc.org

#MondayMood 🛫⁠ ⁠ A striking white coloration makes this spiny skate (Bathyraja spinosissima) easy to spot. These active swimmers hover and glide well above the seafloor, while their relatives tend to stay close to the bottom. This species is especially common in rocky lava fields.

This video was recorded aboard the @mbarinews.bsky.social R/V Rachel Carson. Joost Daniels uses DeepPIV, an innovative imaging technology that utilizes lasers, to scan a larvacean so we can study their intricate structures.

🧪📍🌊 🦑🍎 @mbarinews.bsky.social is now accepting applications for our 30th summer internship program www.mbari.org/about/career...

I want to see the particles that sink carbon to the deep ocean, all the time and in real time.This summer we built an instrument that collects images of sinking particles every second, and visualizes them in 5 different ways. @mbarinews.bsky.social youtu.be/4xXGlnCoik8

New research with data from the @bgc-argo.bsky.social floats from a team led by researchers at @mbarinews.bsky.social and @miamirosenstiel.bsky.social + colleagues. Comments from @stephhenson.bsky.social, story by @mack-baysinger.bsky.social.

A new paper, led by GO-BGC researcher @koelling.bsky.social, using @bgc-argo.bsky.social data, examines ocean ventilation in the subpolar North Atlantic. These insights enhance our understanding of how oxygen enters the deep ocean and may aid in predicting future oxygen loss due to climate change.

Meet the engineering team behind one of MBARI’s new underwater imaging systems 🤖🔧 Our scientists and engineers work side by side to develop cutting-edge tools that track ocean health in real time and help us visualize the ocean like never before. Learn more: youtu.be/Kqo4MhthIkQ?...

The ocean plays an important role in locking away carbon from the atmosphere. A new imaging system developed by @cadurkin.bsky.social and team provides real-time observations of the tiny particles of marine snow that drive carbon storage in the deep sea. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/new-mba...

For more than two decades, MBARI has been part of an international team studying the Arctic seafloor. Last month, our researchers and technology took part in an expedition to better understand the processes shaping the seafloor in this region. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/mbaris-...

Spooky season royalty 👑🎃⁠✨️ ⁠ Atolla gigantea is the largest Atolla species found off the West Coast. This deep-sea crown jelly can reach a diameter of up to 15 centimeters (six inches) and is one of the most widely distributed jellyfish. The genus occurs worldwide, from the Arctic to the Antarctic.

Super pumped to be a guest speaker in the COBRA webinar series in two weeks’ time, along with Olivia Pereira from @mbarinews.bsky.social! We’ll be talking about our Science Communication strategies & experiences. Register for Zoom link here: cobra.bigelow.org/webinars/

🌊A busy day for @mbarinews.bsky.social science and @globaloceanbgc.bsky.social, the major US contribution to @bgc-argo.bsky.social. BGC-Argo floats used to study marine heatwaves and oxygen deficient zones. Great work by Mariana Bif - University of Miami, former MBARI postdoc.

100 years ago, research vessel #Meteor set sail to explore the Atlantic Ocean – one of the most important expeditions of the 20th century. To mark the anniversary, GEOMAR and DSM/Leibniz-Institut für Maritime Geschichte launched a storymap. 🔗 storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5712...

A decade of BGC-Argo and plankton records shows North Pacific heatwaves reshape food webs and trap small particles in midwater, slowing deep-ocean carbon export. Impacts vary by event, underscoring the need for sustained ocean monitoring. @mbarinews.bsky.social @miamirosenstiel.bsky.social

How cool is this? A LEGO Argo Float! Thanks for the inspo @mbarinews.bsky.social! "Treated" everyone in the brick store to a 5min ad-hoc talk why Argo Floats are so cool and important. Shouldn't have asked what I'm building 🙃 ✅Permanent Ocean Monitoring ✅Aid weather/climate forecasts ✅Free/open data

The redhead larvacean is a deep-sea climate hero 🌊💙 These tiny animals build mucous houses to filter marine snow sinking from the waters above. When their filters clog, they abandon their homes, which sink to the seafloor packed with nutrients and large amounts of carbon: youtu.be/7swiAc8rZbk?...

During the 2025 CANON Expedition, MBARI researchers leveraged a diverse suite of technologies—from our flagship research vessel David Packard and autonomous robots to innovative imaging systems and eDNA—to study life in Monterey Bay in remarkable detail. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/mbari-r...

In our newest edition of deep-sea animals that can dance better than you, we present the siphonophore samba by Apolemia rubriversa.💃⁠ ⁠ Siphonophores (pronounced “sigh-fawn-oh-fours”) are colonial creatures made up of specialized segments that work together as one.

Revealing the ocean’s hidden chemistry 🌊 A new statistical approach developed by researchers @mbarinews.bsky.social & @miamirosenstiel.bsky.social enables detection of nitrite and thiosulfate in oxygen-deficient zones. Read more: agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... @agu.org

This whiptail gulper eel (Saccopharynx lavenbergi) was spotted 880 meters deep in Monterey Canyon back in 1993—one of only 18 sightings in nearly 40 years! 📹️😍 With its massive mouth and glowing tail, this deep-sea icon even inspired MBARI’s logo. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nwD...

A new study led by @globaloceanbgc.bsky.social researchers at MBARI has found that marine heatwaves can reshape ocean food webs, slowing the transport of carbon to the deep sea and hampering the ocean’s ability to buffer against climate change. Learn more: www.mbari.org/news/marine-...

The rattail glide 💥 ⁠ Rattails, or macrourids, are common throughout the world’s ocean. Big blue eyes give the rattail an edge at finding food in deep, dark waters. Their keen eyesight reveals prey, like fishes and squid, darting just above the seafloor.

At the 26th annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture, MBARI’s Chris Scholin explored how robotics and AI are revolutionizing marine science and emphasized why developing technology and maintaining a persistent presence are critical to understanding our changing ocean: bit.ly/oceanography...

This week, MBARI President and CEO Antje Boetius joined #ClimateWeekNYC to share how international scientific collaborations can help guide policy to address climate change, especially in polar environments. She attended meetings around future ocean missions that will help achieve the #BBNJ goals.

Dancing with the worms—a compilation of our favorite Alciopid worm dance moves. ⁠🕺🏽⁠ ⁠ Alciopid polychaetes have large, complex eyes with corneas, irises, lenses, and other structures that give them excellent vision. 👀

History made for the ocean: #BBNJ Agreement enters into force, protecting high seas & deep seabed, safeguarding life under water. “Our ocean is the foundation of our very existence. Today we took an important step forward to save our ocean, & to save our future” - ED @ingerandersen.bsky.social

"Oceanography in the age of intelligent robots and a changing climate" tos.org/oceanography... @mbarinews.bsky.social