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Ocean Portal by The Smithsonian Institution

Deep Sea

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IMAGE GALLERY Deep Ocean Diversity See some of the remarkable adaptations that deep-sea animals have evolved. Learn more about their habitat and how marine scientists research it in our Deep Ocean Exploration section.MORE GALLERIES


	ARTICLE MORE STORIES From Submarines to Robots: Exploring the Deep Ocean Filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer James Cameron on March 25, 2012, beca...
	BLOG POST MORE STORIES Summer in a Sub: DROP Down to Discovery You never know where following your passions can take you. I came to the Smithso...
	PHOTO MORE PHOTOS Millions of Brittlestars A huge colony of brittlestars (likely Ophiacantha rosea) covers the peak of a se...

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					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...

Zombie Worms Eating Whale Bone

May 13, 2013 - 9:23AM

Zombie worms (Osedax roseus) eat away at the bones of a dead whale that has...

Scaly Dragonfish

May 8, 2013 - 9:26AM

The long barbel on the chin of this dragonfish (Stomias boa) has a glowing...

SPOTLIGHT


Marine Snow: A Staple of the Deep Snow on land can make some people grumpy, but the magical-looking flakes and a beautiful layer on the trees can turn even...

Coral Scientist J. Murray Roberts: Exploring the Blue Planet Jul 27 2011 - 9:54am Imagine you’re an alien seeing Planet Earth for the first time. What do you see from your spacecraft? A blue planet with over 70% of its surface covered by ocean. From space it’s obvious how important the ocean is to our planet. But we actually know very little about what lives at the bottom of the...	Deep-Sea Worms Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am These deep-sea photographs show a variety of broad-collared enteropneusts or acorn worms. These wormlike animals make spiral tracks on the sea floor. All the species shown here are new to science, and most have not yet been collected by scientists. More about deep ocean exploration can be found in...
Amy Baco-Taylor, Deep-Sea Coral Scientist Jul 27 2011 - 10:44am Dr. Amy Baco-Taylor dives to deep-sea environments to study corals and the invertebrates that live in them.	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.
Aleutian Coral Reef Jun 6 2011 - 10:21am Several species of deep-sea corals form a garden 165 m (540 ft) below the ocean’s surface off the coast of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Explore more in the multimedia feature "Coral Gardens of the Deep Sea."	Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) Jul 31 2012 - 1:06pm About DROP DROP is a multidisciplinary Smithsonian project exploring the diversity of tropical deep reefs off the coast of Curaçao in the southern Caribbean. Deep reefs are natural extensions of shallow water reefs. But because they lie beyond SCUBA diving depths, deep reefs are underexplored...
Deep-Sea Coral Habitat Jun 8 2011 - 4:42pm Rockfish, anemones, and other invertebrates inhabit this deep-sea coral reef in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of California.	Quest for the Giant Squid Nov 20 2009 - 5:17pm Watch a Discovery video on Smithsonian squid expert Clyde Roper’s search for giant squid in Kaikoura Canyon off the coast of New Zealand. More about giant squid can be found in our Giant Squid featured story.
Bioluminescence in Art and Science with Edie Widder Feb 28 2013 - 4:20pm Dr. Edie Widder spoke at the National Museum of Natural History as a part of the Changing Tides Lecture Series and discussed her work on underwater light: light chemically produced by animals through a process called bioluminescence. The beauty of light-producing animals intersects with light art...	Bioluminescing Dinoflagellate Sep 9 2011 - 11:27am Sunset? Time to glow! A biological clock triggers bioluminescence in the dinoflagellate Pyrocystis fusiformis. At dusk, cells produce the chemicals responsible for its light. Hear from marine scientists about what it's like to encounter bioluminescent animals in the deep sea.
Sea Creatures from the Deep: A Video by National Geographic and the Census of Marine Life Dec 8 2009 - 11:05pm The Census of Marine Life - a ten-year effort by scientists from around the world to answer the age-old question, “What lives in the sea?” It was an international effort to asses the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in our ocean, and the project offically...	Protected Deep-sea Corals Jun 7 2011 - 11:52am These deep-sea corals at the Madison-Swanson Marine Reserve in the Gulf of Mexico are protected, along with the marine life they harbor. Learn more about deep-sea corals and marine protected areas in our Deep-sea Corals article.
Auster Diving with Sea Lion Jul 27 2011 - 12:15pm A sea lion in the Sea of Cortez observes Dr. Peter Auster as he observes reef fishes. Learn more about deep-sea coral reefs in our Deep-sea Corals article.	Drugs From the Deep with Shirley Pomponi Feb 28 2013 - 2:34pm Dr. Shirley Pomponi talks about thirty years of experience diving and searching for chemicals in deep-sea sponges that may prove vital to humans. Read more about her work, or see other lectures from the Changing Tides Lecture Series.
Blackdevil Fish Aug 24 2012 - 8:46am Blackdevil fish (Melanocetus johnsonii) are quintessential monsters from the deep. The female lurks in the dark, drawing in prey with her glowing lure, while the male attaches to her like a blood-sucking parasite. Females can swallow prey larger than their own bodies.	Corals in the Juan de Fuca Canyon and the Davidson Seamount Jul 22 2011 - 11:13am Discover some amazing corals in this footage that shows and identifies a range of deep-sea coral species from the Juan de Fuca Canyon off the Olympic coast and the Davidson Seamount, an underwater volcano outside the boundary of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in the Pacific Ocean....