DEEPEND students, researchers, and collaborators participating in a recent Deep Sea Benefits research cruise in the Gulf of Mexico. From Left: Jane Carrick (PhD student, URI), Nina Ramos (PhD student, FIU), Natalie Howard (PhD student, FAU), Dr. Heather Judkins (USF), Bianca Ruiz (MS student, NSU), Sidney Trimble, MS (Research Tech, NSU)

One of DEEPEND's greatest success stories to date is the training of graduate students as they complete master's and doctoral programs. DEEPEND research has supported 80 graduate students over the years (17 PhD, 63 MS) which has (to date) resulted in 33 publications with students as first authors. We would like to congratulate our recent graduates, highlight the work of current students, and welcome new students that have started this Fall! You can read more about the research of our current students here and our former students here.

Recent DEEPEND graduates, institution (advisor): subject
Claire de Noyo, MS, USF (Judkins): Trophic ecology of the hammerjaw, Omosudis lowii
Emma Schindler, MS, NSU (Sutton): Trophic ecology of pelagic eels
Juliet Tretler, MS, NSU (Sutton): Ecology of stromateoid fishes
Katie Lim, MS, NSU (Sutton): Trophic ecology of the longfin escolar
Natalie Howard, MS, FAU (Moore): Bigscale fishes of the deep-pelagic Gulf
Shannon Riley, MS, USF (Judkins): Cephalopod early life stages in the Gulf
Sidney Trimble, MS, NSU (Milligan): Carbon flux of a deep-sea hatchetfish
Travis Kirk, MS, NSU (Sutton): Trophic ecology of the black swallower

Current DEEPEND graduate students:
Bianca Ruiz, MS, NSU (Sutton): shoreward gradients of deep-pelagic fishes
Gwyn Loughman, MS, NSU (Frank): Spatiotemporal analysis of deep-sea shrimps
Haley Glasmann, Ph.D., FIU (Boswell): deep-pelagic acoustic sensing
Ian Areford, Ph.D., FIU (Boswell): deep scattering layer dynamics
Jacob Hack, MS, NSU (Kerstetter): comparing pelagic sampling gears
Keith Centeno, MS, NSU (Milligan): photophore morphometrics of a dragonfish 
Meta Hughes, MS, NSU (Milligan): modelled light intensity as a pelagic driver
Stormie Collins, Ph.D., FIU (Bracken-Grissom): shrimp genetics and bioluminescence
William Mastandrea, MS, NSU (Sutton): pelagic nekton as prey
Zach Strebeck, MS, NSU (Frank): Spatiotemporal analysis of deep-sea shrimps 
Zyan Brown, MS, NSU (Frank): effects of the DWHOS on krill

New DEEPEND graduate students starting this fall:
Alexander Travagliato, MS, NSU (Milligan): TBD
Alyssa Williams, MS, NSU (Sutton): trophic analysis of a deep-pelagic predator
Haley McCartney, PhD, USC (Romero): pelagic contamination
Lisa Rose-Mann, PhD, USF (Judkins): contamination and feeding of deep-sea squid
Lucille Turner, MS, USC (Romero): pelagic contamination
Natalie Howard, PhD, FAU (Moore): fish family Melamphaidae
Nina Ramos, PhD, FIU (Bracken-Grissom): using eDNA to investigate pelagic ecology
Paolo Soto, MS, NSU (Sutton): spatiotemporal distribution of mesopelagic fishes
Tate Abbott, MS, NSU (Sutton): hatchetfish abundance and vertical distribution

DEEPEND has been funded by a separate NOAA project called Deep-Sea Benefits. The Deep-Sea Benefits project will use monitoring to gather information that will increase our understanding of ecological interactions among fish and water column invertebrates, sea turtles, marine mammals, and mesophotic and deep benthic communities. This information can be used to design restoration actions and calculate the benefits from other restoration activities. For example, the information collected by Deep-Sea Benefits will be incorporated into the Active Management and Protection project activities, including informing other agencies responsible for protecting Gulf benthic habitat and resources about these protections. It will also help protect mesopelagic fish and invertebrate communities situated in the water column above them, thus contributing to protecting water column productivity—which helps support sea turtles, marine mammals, and mesophotic and deep benthic community productivity. These protections would also lead to conservation of the biodiversity inherent to these locations. The Deep-Sea Benefits project is layered—both figuratively and literally—on top of other restoration actions being taken to help restore for the injuries from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. (Above excerpt and image below taken from DSB1 cruise blog by Ian Zink).

DEEPEND is currently at sea for the second Deep-Sea Benefits cruise from August 19-September 1, 2025. We will continue surveying the slope in three different areas of the northern Gulf and recording acoustic data throughout. This second cruise will incorporate two new technologies including a benthic lander and a high throughput environmental DNA (eDNA) sampler. The benthic lander will be outfitted with acoustic sensors, environmental sensors, and a camera to record images and videos. You can learn a lot more about the benthic lander on our cruise blog here. The eDNA sampler will be used to collect DNA from the environment that can then be barcoded to inform us about what species have been in the area. This information will be compared with what we collect in the trawl and data we collect with our shipboard acoustic transducers. An upcoming cruise blog will go into more detail about the eDNA sampler soon so be sure to visit our cruise blog page and subscribe!

The DEEPEND team will be heading back out to the Gulf of Mexico next week to conduct their 10th MOCNESS cruise! The main goal of this cruise will be to continue the deep-pelagic time series work as well as adding a new component to create a genetic reference library that can be used to validate eDNA sampling efforts by researchers all over the world. DEEPEND’s famed photographer, Dante Fenolio, will be out there capturing images of the animals we collect and the operations at sea.

The plan is to set sail just after midnight on Tuesday, April 22 and sample for 12 days, arriving back in port on May 3, 2025. The ship tracker will be updated daily on the DEEPEND website's home page as to where DEEPEND is sampling. Cruise blogs will keep everyone updated as to what is happening at sea. You can subscribe to the DEEPEND cruise blog or view it anytime here: https://restore.deependconsortium.org/index.php/cruises/cruiseblog

The DEEPEND (Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics; www.deependconsortium.org) program has been studying the epipelagic, mesopelagic, and bathypelagic fauna of the Gulf of Mexico for the last 14 years (and counting). Given the progress made offshore, we are excited to announce an addition to the DEEPEND research portfolio, a detailed examination of the interactions of mesopelagic and deep-benthic (particularly deep coral) assemblages along the outer continental slope.