Schmidt Ocean Institute

For each expedition, we tell a story about the people behind the science on the research vessel Falkor (too). This video shares Gonzalo Albornoz's experiences leading the mapping team during the #ChileMargin2024 expedition. With an international team of biologists, geophysicists, geologists, and more, each with different objectives, high-resolution seafloor maps allow them to be strategic, maximizing their time getting to the right locations on the seafloor. https://lnkd.in/gJsmtXYh

?? The fall issue of Bay Nature magazine features Schmidt Marine grantee Kakani Katija and her #FathomNet and #FathomVerse projects! Take a read: https://lnkd.in/gdFpDKTp ?? The article describes how researchers at MBARI are collecting and analyzing an ever-growing amount of ROV footage from the deep sea in an attempt to ID life and geological features. But the sheer amount of incoming footage is growing faster than they can process it. ?? That's why Katija compiled an archive of almost 100,000 processed images and is training machine learning tools to do the identification. She's also created a mobile game for citizen scientists called FathomVerse, where players can help train the tools, too. #oceanconservation #marineconservation #marinetech #oceantech #schmidtmarine #schmidtmarinetechnologypartners #baynature #baynaturemagazine

Follow the food — sound advice for animals living in the deep. This Enypniastes eximia is a type of sea cucumber that has been found throughout our global Ocean in the abyssal zone, from 3,000 to 6,500 meters. At this depth, there is no sunlight to drive photosynthesis for food production, so many deep-sea residents rely on a steady diet of decaying organic matter sinking from upper layers of the water. Sea cucumbers eat copious amounts of this marine snow, clearing and aerating the sediment, making it easier for other animals to work through. This seafloor housekeeping service makes these sea cucumbers (which are also known as headless chicken monsters or Spanish dancers) essential workers in benthic ecosystems. This footage was collected during the #ChileMargin2024 expedition, where researchers have been exploring along a margin where a submerged continental shelf extends from the country’s west coast and drops steeply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean. It runs the entire length of South America due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the South American plate. The confluence of tectonic forces and terrestrial influences makes this margin a natural laboratory for investigating chemosynthetic and deep-sea environments that host remarkable biodiversity.

Glass squid are filled with ammonium chloride, making them lighter than ocean water and able to spend their time following the current to find the next meal or mate. According to the folks at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, these effortless floaters are born in shallow waters where the juveniles’ transparent bodies may help them blend in with their surroundings. When their little buoyant bodies reach full size around 4 months, they move to deeper waters. They have been spotted as far down as 2,000 meters. This animal is also bioluminescent and can shapeshift, stuffing its bulbous head and tentacles into its mantle cavity to become a little ball and turning black to evade predators. This footage was collected during the #ChileMargin2024 expedition, where an international science team is working to advance understanding of an essential area in the Ocean while strengthening efforts to manage and protect Chile’s waters.

For #SciArtFriday, we're celebrating one of our talented multimedia correspondents, Misha Vallejo Prut, whose film "Light Memories" is showing at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam. A photographer, he uses his grandfather's camera to recreate a family album, bridging the gap to a man he never met. For several months each year, Misha lives on R/V Falkor (too) and artfully documents the science, exploration, and life happening on board a research vessel at sea. Watch the film trailer here: https://lnkd.in/eSAWh6ZA and enjoy the videos made by the remarkable team of multimedia correspondents (Alex Ingle, Misha Vallejo Prut, and Mónika Naranjo-Shepherd) supporting science at sea for Schmidt Ocean Institute: https://lnkd.in/erY5frfj #SciArt #OceanExploration

Protecting our shores - congratulations to the Australian Hydrographic Office and EGS Survey Pty Ltd (EGS Australia) for commencing the survey SI 1047, in Australia’s Coral Sea Marine Park: https://lnkd.in/gJH-C6ve This SI 1047 multibeam survey was proposed following the mapping by the Schmidt Ocean Institute RV Falkor in 2020/21, which had discovered numerous drowned reefs on the Queensland Plateau. #multibeam #oceanscience

Eight arms, each with a mind of their own. As humans, we’re accustomed to thinking our our brains as the center of all the action, our operating system, if you will. But author and naturalist Sy Montgomery writes that “the human nervous system is made up of 86 billion neurons — the cells responsible for receiving and processing sensory input from the world — and most of them are in our brains.” Octopuses, conversely, have as many as four-fifths of their 350 million neurons distributed in their arms. What might it feel like if your limbs could think independently and still function together as needed? For some researchers, Montgomery notes, the octopus's arms could present a radically different form of consciousness than humans are familiar with. This Muuscoctopus, a genus of deep-sea octopus from the family Enteroctopodidae, was spotted during the #ChileMargin2024 expedition. Researchers have been exploring along a margin where a submerged continental shelf extends from the country’s west coast and drops steeply and suddenly into the Pacific Ocean. It runs the entire length of South America due to the subduction of the Pacific plate under the South American plate. The confluence of tectonic forces and terrestrial influences makes this margin a natural laboratory for investigating chemosynthetic and deep-sea environments that host remarkable biodiversity, from enigmatic octopuses to an epic consortium of crabs.

We’re puzzled about which one of these to put on our holiday list. Do we want to while away the winter hours working on a limited-edition, hand-crafted wooden puzzle of Falkor, Falkor (too), or a beautiful coral reef from Schmidt Ocean Institute’s exploration of the Coral Sea and Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks? #VisioningCoralSea https://lnkd.in/eg6i9TWQ

For #SciArtFriday, read about our adventures transporting the Ocean to Art Basel Paris with inspiring exhibits from Taiji Terasaki and Rebecca Rutstein. With over 65,000 attendees, it is one of the largest art fairs in the world. “Visitors expressed a shared fascination with marine life and the unique experiences of our artist-at-sea initiative,” said Schmidt Ocean Institute's Artist-at-Sea Manager Haley Ha. “Their admiration punctuated by exclamations of ‘Gorgeous!’ and ‘C’est beau!’” #SciArt #ArtistAtSea #OceanExploration #OceanOptimism

?? Exciting Announcement: Ocean Enterprise Initiative's External Advisory Team! ?? We are thrilled to introduce the Ocean Enterprise Initiative External Advisory Team—a group of 22 distinguished professionals from across multiple ocean sectors, including science, technology, policy, business, and industry. These experts will help us spearhead innovation, accelerate thought leadership, cultivate a vibrant workforce, and drive economic development within the Ocean Enterprise. Team includes: Todd Kleperis 陶德, Alfredo Giron Nava, Anuschen Nawaz, Aspasia Pastra, Brad deYoung, Carlo Angeles, Christopher Whitt, Corinne Bassin, David Keller, Dr. Isa Elegbede (PhD), Holly Lopez-Woytak, Ifeoluwa Somorin, Jochen Klinke, Karim Hilmi, Larsen Mettler, Michèle Barbier, Millicent Pitts, Nair Balakrishnan, Nele Dagef?rde, Ruth Patterson, PhD, Scott Loranger, Ted Janulis This team brings diverse perspectives and deep expertise to address the critical challenges facing our oceans. Their collective experience will help to advance the program’s mission to grow the global ocean observing system. #OceanEnterprise #BlueEconomy #Sustainability #MarineTechology #Collaboration #Innovation?