Tag Archives: highlight

Video Bites

Okeanos Explorer Dives on Pearl Harbor Mini Subs

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On December 7th, 2016, the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer dove on two Japanese mini-subs that sank 75 years earlier, during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The USS Ward fired the first shot of the Pacific War, sinking this submarine 90 minutes before the air raid on Pearl Harbor. This attack marked the introduction of the United States into World War 2. Highlights from the dives on these submarines can be viewed below:

More photos and illustrations of the mini-subs and the USS Ward are available on the National Marine Sanctuaries website.

Be sure to check for updates on the upcoming field season on the Okeanos Explorer Home Page, the Nautilus Live Homepage, the Inner Space Center website, and on our Facebook and Twitter pages!

Cool highlights  from the 2016 field season (like this ghost catshark) are available on our YouTube channel!

 

Featured image: Conning tower of Pearl Harbor Mini Sub. Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Exploration and Research, 2017 Shakedown Cruise.

 

Video Bites

Armored Shrimp

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A shrimp with “armor.” When you’re on the menu, any evolutionary help matters.

The NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer continues to research the underwater mysteries of the Gulf of Mexico. Here is a short clip of a brief moment with an unfamiliar face. Not much in the deep sea is an herbivore, almost everything eats and is eaten. Here is a shrimp, taking a moment, possibly to digest a meal just munched. Maybe to sit and admire the bright lights of a strange and enormous creature (the ROV) or possibly to ponder on its recent rise to fame on the Inner Space Center website. Whatever it may be, I say for this shrimp, good luck.

Watch, listen, and enjoy this very short clip of an armored shrimp.

http://youtu.be/sA6-7wuJpqc

Video Bites

Sea Life and Salt

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The NOAA science team stumbles upon an underwater salt lake, also known as a “brine pool.”

The NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer has been diving its ROV, D2, in the Gulf of Mexico this April. Here is a video clip of one of their awesome encounters in the depths of the Gulf. A brine pool is literally an undersea lake. The contact between salty ocean water and much saltier water (brine), means denser water liquid separates from the less dense ocean water. This saltier fluid sits and “pools” on the bottom. It’s so salty that it will erode the sediment it lies on, forming these pools. If any deep sea dwellers happen to stumble into this pool, they have no chance of getting out (and definitely no lifeguards to help!). It’s a geological anomaly for sure, but it’s a nightmare for any biology living in this normally pitch-black environment. However, those creatures that can acquire some “waterfront” property, while anchoring themselves safely, may reap some serious benefits.

Click play below to listen and learn about these eerily beautiful formations, and the creatures surviving on their deadly coastlines.

http://youtu.be/OiZnSb-u51E

Video Bites

Ice That Burns

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The Okeanos science team comes across a rocky outcrop, and discovers a huge abundance of animals that are usually around gas seeps or methane seeps.

The NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer is exploring the Gulf of Mexico for the entire month of April. From the first splash of remotely operated vehicle D2, the discoveries have been truly amazing.

Within a very narrow range of special depths, temperatures and chemical compositions, the conditions can be just right for a spectacular chemical reaction. Once released, methane bubbles from below the seabed can become frozen and suspended in structures of ice. Confused? It’s a tough one to explain. (The video clip will help.) These methane bubbles can be “trapped” in cage-like crystal structures within the ice, called methane hydrate or methane ice. Methane hydrates are very interesting. In the Gulf of Mexico, sites like this are potential sources of highly concentrated energy, naturally occurring thousands of meters below the surface of our ocean. The future for these deeply fascinating areas are unknown. One obvious statement though: they are breathtaking.

Watch below and experience this wonderful discovery with the science team.