InteractiveOceans

Watch a new full-length video tour of the ASHES vent field at Axial Seamount, a volcano ~1,500 m deep and 300 miles off the Oregon coast, on our YouTube channel (link in bio)! 🎥 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1707, V25; editing and narration by Emily Pinneo, University of Washington.

CASM was the 1st active hydrothermal vent field discovered in the NE Pacific, at the base of a large fissure in Axial Caldera. The vents host small black smoker ‘spigots’, tubeworm bushes, sulfide worms, and orange palm worms. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI/, Dive J2-1730, V25; edited by E. Pinneo, UW

Genioliparis ferox, living 2900 m beneath the surface of the NE Pacific, is an extremely rare snailfish - our 2014 cruise was the first time a living example had been recorded! This "weird fish" is a ferocious predator, but little else is known about them.🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; Dive R1757; V14

Sharks!!! As promised, video clips of some of the blue shark activity we saw during the descent of ROV Jason dive J2-1780 at the OR Offshore site. 🌊🚢🧪 Credit: O. Parsons; UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1780, V26. Read cruise blogs and see more photos at the InteractiveOceans VISIONS’26 website (link in bio).

VISIONS‘26 had some interesting encounters, including a few very active blue sharks who knocked a light off the back of the Jason ROV! Should have video soon! 🚢🧪🌊 Pic 1 & 2: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1782, V26. Pic 3: A. Chang, UW; V26. See more photos at the InteractiveOceans V26 site (link in bio)

The ROV Jason is aboard the R/V Roger Revelle and all OOI gear has also been loaded onto the ship in preparation for the VISIONS’26 cruise, leaving on Aug 9th! Follow along with our expedition at the InteractiveOceans website (link in bio) 🚢🧪🌊 PC1: O. Parsons, UW, V26 PC2: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V26.

Thanks to the NSF OOI Regional Cabled Array, vent life (first discovered in 1977) can now be viewed live 2,100 m (~7,000 ft) below the surface! The RCA HD camera gives us an unprecedented view into an underwater world 1.5 miles deep and 200 miles offshore. 🌊🚢🧪 VC: J. Thirtyacre, Univ. of Washington

Chuck McGuire, a Principal Engineer at UW-APL and NSF’s OOI Cabled Array, used a drone in 2017 to get an “eye in the sky” view of the research vessel Roger Revelle, operated by SIO. We sail on the R/V Revelle again this year (Aug 9-18), so stay tuned! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: C. McGuire & M. Elend, UW-APL, V17

These starbursts aren't fireworks, they're Sunflower sea stars! Populations are still recovering from sea star wasting disease, so every sighting of them is exciting. Here’s to a safe, happy 4th of July and a future where these stars continue to shine! 🎆🌊🚢🧪 PC: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive R1756, V14

Learn about the Regional Cabled Array operated by the University of Washington with this short film written, directed, and produced by Sarah Smith. Full video on our YouTube channel (link in bio). 🌊🧪🚢

This week we took a quick trip Lake Washington to calibrate an echosounder for deployment this summer. A tungsten carbide sphere was dangled below the boat and moved around in the “beams” produced by the transducers. Stay tuned for cruise updates in August! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Vardaro & M. White, UW, V26

Pretty pink predatory polyps! Unlike hard corals that thrive in shallow, sunlit areas, soft corals do not build reefs and thrive in the deep ocean. These colorful colonial carnivores attach to hard surfaces and grab food with their tentacles. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1668 (V24), J2-1542 (V23)

Dolphins frolicking at sunset! A pod of Short-beaked common dolphins leaps and swims in synchrony off the bow of the R/V Atlantis, as the sun sets over the open ocean in the NE Pacific. 🌊🧪🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; V25; edited by O. Parsons (UW)

Rattail fishes swim alongside the ROV at Axial Seamount. Rattails are highly efficient swimmers attracted to any disturbance, so they are one of the most commonly seen fish during deep-sea operations. But we never get tired of watching them! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1729, V25; ed: E. Pinneo (UW)

Happy Mother’s Day from the OOI Regional Cabled Array team to all the moms in marine science and around the world. Here we see an early RCA team member at work, learning that oceanography is fun for everyone! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. White, University of Washington, V25.

Remarkable communities thrive in perpetual darkness in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field at Axial Seamount during the RCA 2025 summer expedition. The underwater hot springs emit >300°C fluids nearly a mile beneath the oceans’ surface! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1728, V25; ed. by E. Pinneo (UW)

Tanner crabs scuffle by a soft coral on a 60 m limestone pinnacle at S. Hydrate Ridge (~800 m depth) methane seep site. The larger crab is caught mid-molt and its smaller foe, emboldened by a stylish anemone headpiece, comes in swinging. 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25; ed: O. Parsons (UW)

A spider crab, living >6000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, climbs down a precipice at the edge of the Dymond hydrothermal vent field near the base of Axial Seamount. These crabs are slow moving but major predators and scavengers at Axial! 🧪🌊🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1650, V24, ed. by E. Pinneo

Two opalescent nudibranchs navigate across platforms on the Regional Cabled Array shallow profiler moorings (200 m depth) near the base of the Cascadia Margin and Axial Seamount. See more biology videos and photos on our website and YouTube channel! (link in bio) VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, V25 🌊🚢🧪

The OOI-RCA has 3 Shallow Profiler Moorings: an instrumented platform at 200 m depth and a winched Science Pod containing 9 sensors that travels to near surface and back 9 times daily: to date, >55,000 profiles traversing >32 million meters! Learn more on our website (link in bio) 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/CSSF

Stunning jellies photographed at Southern Hydrate Ridge during the 2025 RCA cruise. Pic 1 is a Dinner Plate jelly, active hunters that can grow to 8 inches across; Pic 2 is Voragonema pedunculata, a small red jelly that can have up to 2000 tiny tentacles! 🌊🚢🧪 PC1 & 2: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1744, V25

A white Neptunea snail crawling near Southern Hydrate Ridge, and another sitting on top of its yellow egg case. When they find suitable rocks, the snails create huge nurseries of 8-12" towers, each containing thousands of eggs, before they topple off and die. 🌊🚢🧪🐌 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25

Our VISIONS’25 UW Oceanography students included some amazing artists who helped boost morale and maintain shipboard mental health via creative pursuits! Their incredible creations included a) two octopuses and a rattail by Oliver Parsons and b) a blue heron and secretary bird by Leo Couchon. 🌊🚢🧪