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Chelsea Rochman dissects a dorado caught by the crew to see if it had eaten plastic. Nearly 10 percent of all fish collected on the expedition had plastic in their systems.

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Dorado Dissection

April 2015

Trash Detective and microbial ecologist Peter Davison and crew haul in the Oozeki net, used to collect fish and other organisms living between 650 and 2,600 feet, at sunrise. Operations aboard the SEAPLEX cruise happened 24 hours a day around the clock.

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Oozeki Net

April 2015

Plastic does not biodegrade; it photodegrades, which means that sunlight breaks it down into smaller and smaller pieces. These bits of plastic and plankton were collected during a 3:00 am manta net tow, and are just a sample of the plankton-like plastic pi

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Plastic Bits from the Gyre

July 2015

Trash Detective and marine ecologist Chelsea Rochman cruises through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, net in hand, scooping up plastic, fouling communities and more.

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Trash Detectives at Work

April 2015

Hatchetfish photographed moments after being pulled from the deep sea in the Oozeki net trawl. These small, silvery fish have large eyes to collect any sunlight that reaches the deep sea. Even in the deep, they are not immune to human impacts; the research

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Hatchetfish

September 2015

This 1936 blue whale specimen from the Gulf of Alaska (above: preserved in alcohol, below: CT scan) is part of a rare Smithsonian collection of whale fetuses that were collected in association with commercial whaling operations in the early to mid-20th cen

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Blue Whale Specimen

March 2015

Dr. Maya Yamato and colleague John Ososky dissect the head of a deceased stranded fin whale in the Chesapeake Bay to examine soft tissue associated with the ears. In 2015, Yamato’s team of researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural H

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Learning From A Stranded Fin Whale

March 2015

The red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Gverm).

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Gracilaria vermiculophylla

February 2015

Scientists process ARMS

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Processing ARMS

February 2015

A view outside the Curasub.

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Visiting the Deep Sea In Curasub

February 2015

The Curasub is deployed by the R/V Chapman

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R/V Chapman and Curasub

February 2015

Corals Get Covered: The Gulf oil spill was different from many big oil spills in history because oil spewed from a well in the deep sea instead of leaking onto the ocean's surface. GoMRI scientists have found that oil remains in the deep to this day—and

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Corals Get Covered

February 2015