Exploration

LATEST TODAY'S CATCH

Searching for Crustaceans in the Deep Sea

Searching for Crustaceans in the Deep Sea

May 16, 2013 - 9:04AMIn this video Smithsonian research zoologist Dr. Martha Nizinski takes viewers with her as she searches for crustaceans in the deep sea. She's particularly interested in finding squat lobsters, which despite their name, are...
Feb 28, 2013 - 10:18AM
How many animals swim in the sea? It's not easy to count them all. To get a...
Jan 29, 2013 - 11:19AM
Cooks Bay in Moorea is one of the places that researchers are scouring in...

SPOTLIGHT

Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

In the spring of 2011, a research crew from Oceana spent two months in the brackish Baltic Sea. The Baltic faces...
The Baltic Sea faces challenges from pollution, algae blooms, over fishing, and invasive species.
Taking an Ice Sample
Jan 10 2011 - 12:55pm
Using a drill, a team removes a chunk from the thick Arctic ice. Small samples are taken from where the ice meets liquid seawater. The ice is then melted for analysis.
school of bluefin tuna
Jul 8 2010 - 6:57pm
What is it like to be eyeball to eyeball with a fish the size of a Volkswagen? In this episode of the Podcast of Life, learn how a tuna fisherman and a biologist are teaming up to tag bluefin tuna, and how those tags are revealing surprises that might help save tuna from their own popularity in...
Scientists Explore the Ocean in Alvin
Dec 15 2009 - 6:07pm
Take a tour of the Alvin, a three-person submersible that allows scientists to explore the depths of the ocean. This is an excerpt from the full Deep Ocean Explorers video. More about deep ocean exploration can be found in our Deep Ocean Exploration featured story.
Dec 8 2010 - 7:17pm
The robotic underwater glider Scarlet Knight crossed the Atlantic over the course of several months in 2009.
Jul 27 2011 - 11:25am
Deep-sea coral beds are true biodiversity hotspots. It’s urgent that we study these extreme environments because we know so little about them, because they are important communities for so many deep-sea creatures, and because they are so susceptible to human activities.
Jan 6 2011 - 10:28am
Arctic Ice diver Shawn Harper “stands” on the ice ceiling above him.
Jul 2 2012 - 3:05pm
Scripps Institution of Oceanography's FLoating Instrument Platform, or FLIP, conducts sea trials off San Diego in May 2009.
The Whale Acoustic Lab
Nov 30 2009 - 1:32pm
John Hildebrand discusses his research at the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab on the FLIP platform. Learn more about how scientists are using bioacoustics to study and protect whales.
The Trouvadore  A Story of Deliverance
Feb 21 2010 - 4:12pm
Join marine archeologists as they trace the history of the Trouvadore, a slave ship bound for Cuba that wrecked in the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1841, and the ship’s passengers unusual path to freedom.
Jul 27 2011 - 11:45am
Scientist Martha Nizinski holds a squat lobster (Eumunida picta) collected at the Lophelia reefs off Cape Lookout, North Carolina. Squat lobsters are extremely abundant there and are usually found perched on top of coral mounds. Nizinski’s research has provided a better understanding of the...
X-ray of a white-rimmed stingray
Dec 17 2009 - 7:00pm
Scientists in the Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History use X-ray imaging to study the complex bone structure and diversity of fish. This image gallery showcases X-ray images of sharks and their relatives and bony fish; revealing how...
Nov 27 2012 - 9:51am
Researchers with the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) collected this sea toad, Chaunax pictus, off the coast of Honduras in 2011. The team is trying to collect sea toads from around the Caribbean to better understand the group's genetic diversity and distribution.
Jul 27 2011 - 11:07am
Dr.
Excavating an Extinct Toothed Whale
Jun 23 2011 - 11:20am
A time-lapse video shows researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute racing to excavate the fossil of an extinct toothed whale on a beach in Piña, Panama. The fossil is from the Squalodontidae group, commonly known as "shark-...
Whalefish Swimming in the Ocean
Nov 8 2010 - 11:50am
Marine biologists discover a whalefish -- an incredibly rare deep-sea fish -- swimming in the ocean in this video. Because it is so dark where they live, females have well-developed sensory pores, called the lateral line system, running up and down the sides of their bodies to sense vibrations in...
North Atlantic right whale
Dec 22 2009 - 3:14pm
Hear how research unfolds at sea in a tiny Zodiac surrounded by creatures that measure longer than a city bus. Playing female whale calls into the water, researcher Susan Parks suddenly finds herself the center of attention of a group of male North Atlantic right whales. Will she be able to gather...