The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Deep Discoverer images a newly discovered hydrothermal vent.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
1/33
Ocean layers.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
2/33
An octopus at a seep site.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
3/33
The autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
4/33
Alvin uses one of its manipulator arms to take samples from the sea floor. Alvin is a three-manned American deep-sea submersible fitted with sophisticated equipment.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
5/33
A seamount at a depth of 2,465 metres.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
6/33
Glass sponges are visible in the foreground of this sponge community found at a depth of about 2,360 m.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
7/33
A translucent egg case with a catshark embryo actively swimming inside it.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
8/33
A copepod family Aetideidae) laden with eggs.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
9/33
The octocoral Iridigorgia with squat lobsters on it, in the north-western Gulf of Mexico.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
10/33
The curlicue shape is a characteristic of Iridogorgia.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
11/33
A hydrothermal vent chimney.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
12/33
A vent emitting droplets of liquid carbon dioxide.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
13/33
A seep site with clusters of live Bathymodiolus mussels (left side, foreground, and background).Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
14/33
An aggregation of Lamellibrachia sp. tubeworms providing a habitat for many smaller animals.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
15/33
The giant tubeworm Riftia pachyptila.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
16/33
Sea cucumbers (Chiridota heheva) with chemosynthetic Bathymodiolus mussels at a cold seep.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
17/33
An aggregation of ice worms inhabiting methane hydrate. These worms eat chemoautotrophic bacteria using chemicals in the hydrate.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
18/33
The bone-eating worm Osedax.Photo: Courtesy of Greg Rouse
19/33
Methane bubbles flow in small streams out of the sediment on an area of sea floor. Quill worms, anemones and patches of microbial mat can be seen in the periphery.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
20/33
Tubeworms associated with seeps. These worms are related to but differ from the giant tubeworms found around hydrothermal vents.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
21/33
The site of a whale fall. When a whale dies and sinks to the sea floor, it is feast time for several organisms for several years to come.Photo: Courtesy of Craig Smith, University of Hawaii.
22/33
A purple squat lobster with stalked barnacles attached to it. This lobster is a scavenger and is among the first creatures to arrive at the scene of a whale fall.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
23/33
A squat lobster perching on an undescribed genus of bamboo coral. This lobster is a scavenger and is among the first creatures to arrive at the scene of a whale fall.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
24/33
A coral garden. Like their shallow warm-water cousins, cold-water corals provide a habitat for several deep-sea creatures.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
25/33
A deep-sea red crab hangs out on a bubblegum coral.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
26/33
A hard rock area with a very high coral diversity on a seamount complex.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
27/33
A sea pen (Pennatulacea) on the soft sediment of the sea floor.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
28/33
Bright yellow parasitic zoanthids encrusting a glass sponge.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
29/33
Sulphide chimneys coated with an iron-based microbial mat at a vent site.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
30/33
A yellow bamboo coral. Deep-sea corals obtain their nutrition by trapping tiny organisms that the ocean currents bring to them.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
31/33
A sponge covered with hundreds to thousands of tiny anemones also provides a home to several brittlestars (pink), sea lilies (yellow) and a basket star (brown).Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
32/33
A new species of vent-endemic flatfish.Photo: Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Explorer
Please Email the Editor