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Ocean Portal by The Smithsonian Institution

Census of Marine Life

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ARTICLE Arctic Ocean Diversity The ArcOD project brought together existing information about the diversity of Arctic ecosystems, collected new samples to fill in gaps of knowledge and looked for species and community chan...MORE STORIES


	VIDEO MORE VIDEOS Forces of Change in the Ocean The ocean covers more than 70 percent of the Earth and is essential to all life....
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Elephant Seals Tussle for Territory Male northern elephant seals face off on the beach by vocalizing through their e...
	IMAGE GALLERY MORE GALLERIES Census of Marine Life: Wild and Wonderful Creatures The Census of Marine Life - a ten-year effort by scientists from aroun...

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					Red Mid-Water Comb Jelly Apr 18, 2013 - 10:35AMLike this ctenophore (Aulococtena acuminata), many animals that live in the midwater zone are red—making them almost invisible in the dim blue light that filters down from the sea surface. This small comb jelly snares prey with...

Jellyfish, or Siphonophore Colony?

Mar 4, 2013 - 10:11AM

This colony of Rosacea may look like a single jellyfish, but it is...

New Jelly Species: 'Bathykorus bouilloni'

Oct 16, 2012 - 9:53AM

Many expeditions in the Arctic reveal new species, such as this jellyfish...

SPOTLIGHT


The Census of Marine Life During the decade of the Census of Marine Life, more than 6,000 potential new ocean species were discovered by 2,700...

Sea Stars and Urchins off Antarctica Sep 28 2012 - 3:03pm Sea stars (Odontaster validus) and sea urchins (Sterechinus neumayeri) spread over an algae-covered seafloor off the coast of Antarctica.	Midwater Jellyfish Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am A fringe of short tentacles surrounds the flattened bell of this tiny, transparent jellyfish (Halicreas minimum), which can be found at depths up to 984 feet (300 meters). But it would be hard to spot: the bell grows up to just 4 centimeters (2 inches) across! See more deep ocean diversity and...
A Ctenophore Feeds Aug 29 2012 - 1:35pm The comb jelly (ctenophore) Thalassocalyce inconstans is found in shallow to deep water in the Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean Sea, and sometimes in warmer Pacific Ocean waters off the coast of California -- although this one was photographed in the Sargasso Sea by Census of Marine Zooplankton...	Amphipod: Salp Invader Sep 7 2012 - 4:35pm Can you spot the amphipod (Phronima atlantica) in the below photo? She's the transparent lobster-looking animal in the middle, surrounded by her own eggs -- inside a sac that once was the "barrel" of a salp. Mothers in the genus Phromina attack the barrel-shaped salps, hollowing out the inside...
A Striped Deep Sea Worm Apr 4 2013 - 12:38pm In Antarctica's Southern Ocean swims a beautiful polychaete (bristly worm) called Tomopteris carpenteri, which is adorned with alternating red and transparent bands. The largest species in its genus, it it found throughout the water column, including the deep sea, where this photo was taken by...	Jellyfish, or Siphonophore Colony? Mar 4 2013 - 10:11am This colony of Rosacea may look like a single jellyfish, but it is actually a large group of smaller siphonophores clustered and living together. In fact, the zooids (individual siphonophores living in the colony) cannot survive on their own. This specimen was photographed by the Census of...
Red Mid-Water Comb Jelly Apr 18 2013 - 10:35am Like this ctenophore (Aulococtena acuminata), many animals that live in the midwater zone are red—making them almost invisible in the dim blue light that filters down from the sea surface. This small comb jelly snares prey with its two short tentacles.	Spider Conch from China Aug 3 2010 - 9:54am This beautiful spider conch (Lambis chiragra) was collected by Census of Marine Life scientists conducting research near China.
Five Questions with Brigitte Ebbe, Polychaete Pundit Apr 8 2013 - 11:11am Now that the Census of Marine Life is over, we’re checking in with some of the researchers to hear about their favorite expedition, what they learned, and how the Census and its findings continue to influence their work.	Biodiversity in the Coastal Zone Aug 29 2012 - 6:02pm Logistically speaking, the nearshore zone of the ocean -- the coastal areas to a depth of around 65 feet (20 meters) -- is the most-studied region of the ocean because of its accessibility. But, surprisingly, the estimates for how many species live in this region worldwide vary widely, from 178,000...
Deep Sea Copepod Aug 29 2012 - 12:17pm This copepod (Gaussia princeps) was collected deeper than 1000 meters in the Sargasso Sea by Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) researchers in April 2006, as part of the 10-year Census of Marine Life. However, specimens of this species have been collected in all the world's oceans at many depths...