One of the DEEPEND team members, Dante Fenolio, our resident photographer, conducted a series of short videos during our recent cruise highlighting "Life Aboard a Research Ship" through his Facebook page. If you're interested about the many pieces it takes to make a research cruise successful, check out the 20 or so video clips! Many of the Point Sur crew and the DEEPEND science team discuss their roles while onboard. Enjoy!

The deep-pelagic habitat (200 m depth to just above the seabed) is the largest habitat in the Gulf of Mexico, yet we know very little about it compared to coastal and shallow-water habitats. Our limited understanding of this major marine habitat makes it extremely difficult to assess the effects of disturbances such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Travis Richards seeks to better understand the structure of deep-pelagic food webs by tracing the energy flow from the food web base through higher trophic levels. His research will help expand our understanding of the deep-pelagic habitat and serve as a reference point for future studies and response efforts.

The GoMRI community embraces bright and dedicated students like Travis Richards and their important contributions. The GoMRI Scholars Program recognizes graduate students whose work focuses on GoMRI-funded projects and builds community for the next generation of ocean science professionals.

Travis's work is a feature story on the GoMRI website.  Read about it here

The DEEPEND Consortium held it's first Synthesis Workshop at NSU's Guy Harvey Oceanographic Center in Dania Beach Florida on May 14th-15th, 2018.  The workshop was well-attended by 50 consortia members, students, and affiliated scientists, including the following external participants:

Stacy Calhoun (ULL; Deep-pelagic zooplankton)
Kait Frasier (SIO; Marine mammal collaboration)
Dean Grubbs (FSU; Deep-demersal predator collaboration)
Dan Hahn (NOAA Office of Response and Restoration)
Bill Hogarth (GoMRI Research Board Member)
John Quinlan (NOAA NMFS SEFSC – NRDA water column assessment)
Steve Murawski (USF; C-IMAGE I-III PI; epipelagic top predator collaboration)
Kelly Robinson (ULL; RFP VI co-PI – Deep-pelagic zooplankton)
Jim Ruzicka (OSU, RFP VI co-PI – ecosystem modeling)
Verena Wang (USM: – Deep-pelagic zooplankton, larval fish time-series)
Eric Weissberger (NOAA NMFS Monitoring and Adaptive Management)
Chuck Wilson (GoMRI Chief Science Officer)

We thank all participants who joined us in this synthesis effort.  The meeting was recorded and will be transcribed for a report.

The meeting agenda can be downloaded here.

Saturday, April 28th, DEEPEND team member, Heather Judkins, narrated the midwater transect portion of the NOAA Okeanos dive which is part of a cruise currently being conducted in the Gulf of Mexico which ends on May 3rd. Tracey Sutton was also part of the shore-based scientific team, identifying the various fish species that were seen. We had amazing sightings from siphonophores to fishes to even cephalopods!

The goal of the Okeanos cruises are to explore new areas of both benthic and midwater regions around the world. This year, the Okeanos team will be in the Gulf of Mexico and the western Atlantic Ocean. The public are invited to view the live feed of the explorations at this site: https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/okeanos/