Celebrating cephalopods, our first at-sea livestream, and more

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

In this month’s newsletter, we’re sharing some fun and fascinating stories along with an exciting event that you won’t want to miss.

As we turn the corner on a devastating pandemic, we reflect on how different this summer is from last and how profoundly COVID-19 affected the world around us. Our researchers even saw the impact of the pandemic at sea, recording a drop in ocean noise last spring and summer when COVID-19 slowed maritime shipping traffic.

We continue to study the largest migration on Earth—the nightly marathon of deep-sea animals between the twilight zone and the surface. And we showcased the astonishing diversity of cephalopods during Cephalopod Week—an annual celebration of these curious critters.

Our team is readying for an expedition to Sur Ridge later this month and our inaugural Live from the Deep virtual event. See live footage from the deep sea, ask experts your questions, and find out what it’s like to have a career exploring the ocean.

We look forward to continuing to connect with you throughout the summer,

The MBARI Team

Live from the Deep

On Wednesday, June 30, MBARI will be exploring Sur Ridge—a rocky outcropping off California’s Central Coast that rises 500 meters (1,640 feet) above the deep seafloor. We’ll stream our expedition live to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and our website. Tune in at 11:00 a.m. (Pacific) and watch over our shoulders as we explore this underwater oasis that is home to ancient corals, massive sponges, and countless other curious creatures. NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) and Monterey Bay Aquarium will join us for this expedition, and you’ll have a chance to ask our team of experts all of your questions about deep-sea animals, research, and exploration. Learn more.

Creature feature

Bamboo coral
family Isididae

Ancient coral forests grow in the deep, but these are animals, not plants. Learn more.

Weird and wonderful

Snailfish
family Liparidae

Snailfishes are a diverse and thriving group of deep-sea fishes with over 400 described species. Watch here.

A closer look at the
largest migration on Earth

At dusk, millions of fishes, crustaceans, squids, and other animals leave the ocean’s twilight zone and swim to the surface. These creatures find a feast in shallower waters and feed under cover of night before retreating to the safety of the depths at dawn. New research led by MBARI Senior Scientist Kelly Benoit-Bird used autonomous robotics outfitted with acoustic technology to examine the timing of animals’ movements out of the depths. The findings shed new light on why deep-sea animals embark on their massive migration each night and reveal that this phenomenon is more dynamic than previously believed. Read more.

Cephalopod Week

We're celebrating our favorite deep-sea cephalopod celebrities—from adorable octopuses to mysterious vampire squid—for an entire week! Learn more.

Livestream

The Monterey Bay Aquarium's social media team joined our cephalo-experts Crissy Huffard and Ben Burford for a tentacular livestream. Watch here.

Listening close during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 global pandemic upended life around the world and disrupted global economic activity. It enabled a rare opportunity to measure the relationship between shipping traffic and the underwater soundscape in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. A new study leveraged audio captured by an underwater microphone on MBARI’s cabled ocean observatory to reveal a drop in low-frequency sound last spring and summer—a change researchers attribute to a decline in shipping traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.