The NOAA expedition spent three months studying the deepest seas in the Gulf of Mexico, with two main goals: to explore the habitats of benthic species, and to map the seafloor. of this area.
Using remote-controlled submarines (ROVs) and shore-based transceivers, the expedition team sent home stunning images of the uncharted waters.
After dozens of exploratory dives, NOAA’s submarine has brought back images of creatures that have almost never been seen.
In the image is Bamboo Coral, they often live in the sediments on the seabed where thousands of meters above the water surface.
Submarines are exploring an oil rig that sank in the area in 2002.
NOAA’s submarine is named “Ocean Explorer”. This machine often conducts expeditions with sunken ships, collecting 3D images and analyzing the creatures living on them.
And surprisingly, instead of a drilling rig, NOAA researchers discovered this was an image of a commercial ship that was wrecked in this sea in the 1830s.
In the image, you can see the Little Snake Star, surrounded by the thorny arms of the larger starfish. They are living in coral clusters below 500m depth.
You must have never seen this type of shrimp before.
A spider crab is “hitching” on the back of a giant rockworm Giant Isopod at their burrow 600m above the water.
The Giant Isopod is a deep-sea rock worm that is commonly found in cold seas around the world. This is the largest rock worm ever found with a length of about 80cm and a weight of nearly 2kg.
These two shrimp have undeveloped vision, meaning they are completely “blind” because they live in a dark environment where light can never reach. They have a habit of digging and sharing their burrows with each other.
This is a long-nosed chimaera fish swimming around, captured by a NOAA submarine. This photo surprised many researchers because it was the first time they had seen this unique fish with their own eyes.
An entire “community” of starfish resides on an undersea quarry.
NOAA’s submarine also caught a Ctenophore swimming above the reef.
The photo step below is of a three-legged fish swimming with an isopods parasite clinging to its fin.
This three-legged fish, like other bottom-dwelling species, has not developed a sense of sight, but instead uses its fins as a sensory antenna to capture “naive” prey. “lack of vigilance.
A Periphylla periphylla, a bottom-dwelling hat-shaped jellyfish, is trying to escape when startled by the submarine’s light.
A Tuscarorid phaeodarean feeding on “sea snow”, a compound including fish droppings drifting from the surface to a depth of 700m
This humpy and rude looking eel was taken at a depth of 500m on the seabed.
This is a sea toad, they only live in water deeper than 500m. They can “walk” on the sea floor thanks to the tiny fins on the lower body.
This guy is so cute, isn’t he? This is Dumbo, a species of octopus that lives in the very deep waters of the seabed.
