Aurelia aurita jellyfish

Aurelia aurita jellyfish

A flotilla of fish follow a transparent drifting jellyfish Aurelia aurita.

A flotilla of fish follow a transparent drifting jellyfish Aurelia aurita.

Aurelia aurita jellyfish

Aurelia aurita jellyfish

Six-gill shark

Six-gill shark

Eye in the Sea, a camera observatory with a visiting crab

Eye in the Sea, a camera observatory with a visiting crab

Crab on a rock outcrop

Eye-in-the-Sea as seen from submersible

Handfuls of jellyfish slime

Launching JASON ROV from NOAA Ship RONALD H. BROWN

Launching JASON ROV from NOAA Ship RONALD H. BROWN

Harbor Branch Oceanographic R/V SEWARD JOHNSON II

To make fluorescent observations, the Johnson-Sea-Link is modified by placing blue filters on the submersible's two 400 W HMI lamps.

Tropical Storm Bonnie makes its way across the Gulf of Mexico.

Sampling fauna of the Gulf of Mexico. A beautiful iridescent dolphinfish shortly after capture. After measurement, it went to the cooks.

Tethered diver in blue water dive observing fauna in the water column

Mass of unidentified fish eggs on Metallogorgia collected at Kelvin Seamount.

Cross sectional view of polyps and eggs in Paragorgia sp. colony.

Antimora over sandy portion of seamount.

A beautiful white sponge with purple crinoids on Retriever Seamount.

An asteroid sea star collected while feeding on coral at Bear Seamount

A deep-water anemone

Squat lobster and an abundance of other marine invertebrates

Macro image made with 60 mm lens showing sea fans with brittle stars.

The galatheoid crab Eumunida picta catches and consumes a squid.

Atlantic roughy Hoplostethus occidentalis at the base of a large Leiopathes glabberima black coral colony

Basket stars, crinoids, anemone, and crab on rock outcropping in Atwater Valley region in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hyperoglyphe perciformis (barrel fish) in Lophelia reef habitat. Collection containers on Jason's basket are seen on right.

Callogorgia sp. octocoral with brittlestar (left) and purple soft corals (right) from Green Canyon region in the Gulf of Mexico.

An example of the Mississippi Canyon 751 site where coral and cold seep habitats intersect. On the left is the gorgonian coral Callogorgia americana, which is a target species being used for genetic studies. On the right is a seep tubeworm colony.

Callogorgia sp. octocorals from 300 meters in the Green Canyon region in the Gulf of Mexico. Brittlestars are on the coral colony and Javania sp. cup corals are around the base.

Lophelia pertusa, black coral (right), anemones, and squat lobster.

Lophelia pertusa coral, with opened polyps, attached to an authigenic carbonate rock. Seep-dependent tubeworms are visible behind the coral.

Newly discovered Lophelia pertusa reef. Note live coral growth on top of dead coral structure.

Close-up of Lophelia pertusa calyx with polyp retracted.

Madrepora oculata (close-up) showing calyx structure. Madrepora is one of the reef-building corals. Note characteristic zigzag pattern of this coral.

Lophelia pertusa coral, with opened polyps, attached to an authigenic carbonate rock.

Photomosaic of Madrepora reef with surrounding clamshell debris (below and left) and Paramuricea gorgonians (soft corals) on the periphery. Mosaic is made up of approximately 70 images and area is approximately 20 meters squared.

Anemones on Lophelia conglomerate.

Collected deep-sea shrimp (Bathypalaemonella) with soft coral (Chrysogorgia).

Black coral (Leiopathes sp.) polyp. Note mouth and six tentacles.

Collected brittle star, Asteroschema, with a parmuricid coral.

The disc of this tiny brittlestar is 5 mm in diameter. Brittlestars of all sizes are common in deepwater coral communities including this small one found in surface sediments associated with Lophelia pertusa.

This segment of much larger image shows the eight tentacles that are diagnostic of an octocoral. The tiny polyps are often damaged during collection.

WHOI's Jason II on the deck of the NOAA Ship RON BROWN

A nine-legged starfish.