Exploration

LATEST TODAY'S CATCH

Searching for Crustaceans in the Deep Sea

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...
Feb 28, 2013 - 10:18AM
How many animals swim in the sea? It's not easy to count them all. To get a...
Jan 29, 2013 - 11:19AM
Cooks Bay in Moorea is one of the places that researchers are scouring in...

SPOTLIGHT

Biodiversity in the Baltic Sea

In the spring of 2011, a research crew from Oceana spent two months in the brackish Baltic Sea. The Baltic faces...
The Baltic Sea faces challenges from pollution, algae blooms, over fishing, and invasive species.
Jul 27 2011 - 12:11pm
Dr. Peter Auster gets ready for a dive to study the ecology of fish predators at Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia.
Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
The research submersible Alvin uses bright lights to illuminate the dark seafloor. Built in 1964, it has made more than 4,400 dives. It can carry two scientists and a pilot as deep as 4,500 meters (14,764 feet).
Map of Smithsonian science research field stations
Dec 2 2009 - 3:42pm
These Smithsonian field stations enable scientists worldwide to conduct long-term studies on mangrove ecosystems from a range of latitudes.
The Moorea Biocode Project
Nov 11 2009 - 5:48pm
Scientists on the tiny island of Moorea, in the Pacific, are gathering one of every life form large enough to pick up with tweezers. They're on a quest to build a detailed catalog of the entire ecosystem. Learn more about the island and the research being done there in our Casting a Wide Net...
Aug 13 2012 - 11:05am
The Mars rover Curiosity is sending images back home: glimpses of another world during a voyage of discovery. While Curiosity is clicking pictures millions of miles away, I am privileged to be taking part in my own voyage of discovery to the inner space of this planet.
Ice Divers Prepare to Plunge
Jan 5 2011 - 4:43pm
It takes special equipment and many warm layers of clothing to dive safely beneath Arctic sea ice. Ice divers look for holes in a melt pond in order to enter the frigid waters.
May 11 2012 - 11:46am
Nick Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, holds an arm bone from a "toothed" mysticete from Vancouver Island. This is the second specimen found at this locality on the remote western side of Vancouver Island. Nick used a rock saw to...
The Whale Acoustic Lab
Nov 30 2009 - 1:32pm
John Hildebrand discusses his research at the Scripps Whale Acoustic Lab on the FLIP platform. Learn more about how scientists are using bioacoustics to study and protect whales.
Jul 27 2011 - 12:30pm
I still haven’t gotten beyond the ‘gee whiz’ factor of studying communities of animals in deep-sea coral habitats. Climbing over undersea mountains and along the steep cliffs of submarine canyons using subs and ROVs, I’ve had the opportunity to see some species of deep-sea fishes alive for the very...
Jul 5 2011 - 9:40am
Curaçao, an island in the southern Caribbean is the site of the Smithsonian's Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP). Researchers are using a submarine to study and collect specimens from the hard-to-reach deep reefs. Read more about the research in the "Summer in a Sub" blog series.
Jan 26 2010 - 11:45am
Smithsonian squid expert Dr. Clyde Roper collaborated with National Geographic to attach this Crittercam to the head of a sperm whale, hoping to get footage of the whale’s favorite prey—giant squid. At left is the Crittercam’s inventor, Greg Marshall, of National Geographic. At right is British...
The Titanic Wrecksite
Apr 13 2010 - 11:49am
On her maiden voyage the Royal Mail Ship Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic just before midnight on April 14th, 1912.  Dr. Robert Ballard first discovered the ship's wreckage in 1985.  Nearly twenty years later, in a look-don't-touch mission, Dr. Ballard and a team of...
Jul 13 2012 - 1:01pm
Imagine: You’re in a small submersible, and you gently settle on the soft muddy bottom at a depth of 12,000 feet. It’s absolutely dark. What will you see when the exterior lights are turned on? Will you discover underwater volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, as some astonished geologists did back in...
Excavating an Extinct Toothed Whale
Jun 23 2011 - 11:20am
A time-lapse video shows researchers from the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute racing to excavate the fossil of an extinct toothed whale on a beach in Piña, Panama. The fossil is from the Squalodontidae group, commonly known as "shark-...
Shallow Water Diving with WHOI
Jul 15 2011 - 1:42pm
"Shallow Water Diving: The Benefits of Being There" produced by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), spotlights researchers using scuba in shallow water. These scientists, working on coral reefs, fish ecology, and sea floor topography, require uninterrupted lengths of time or close work in...
Jul 8 2011 - 10:25am
Have you ever seen a creature so unusual?  This fish (22 cm long) is called a sea toad and studying them requires luck and the opportunity to descend into the deep waters where they live.