Brittle stars wrapping about a deepwater coral at approximately 1600 meters depth on a small seamount.

A close look at the red arms of a sea lily living at 516 meters depth.

A giant basket star with an intricate network of bifurcating legs is imaged at 555 meters depth.

Close look at the extended polyps of lavendar octocoral

A stalked sponge.

Closeup of extended polyps of a cnidarian

A stalked sponge (?) coral (?)

This animal is probably a "carnivorous sponge" of the family cladorhizidae.

Crinoids and brittlestars on the arms of what appears to be a giant sponge.

Dense community including sponges, sea lilies, corals, and even a galatheid crab imaged at Site K.

A glass sponge with red shrimp

Unidentified fauna. Perhaps a purple sea hare.

Diving on a shallow volcanic cone the ROV encountered what appeared to be iron staining around cracks in the rocks and possibly a yellow bacterial mat. The white animal is a sponge.

A close look at a rare representative of the phylum cnidaria. Seen at 807 meters depth.

A large white anemone

Venus flytrap (actinoscyphiid sea anemones) anemones on a volcanic boulder.

Crinoids, sea lilies,

Beautiful spiral iridigorgia coral.

A red many-legged holothurian (?) a huge worm (?)

A white many-legged holothurian (?) a huge worm (?)

Close up of a large purple spoon worm

Galatheid crab on a deepwater coral from a frame grab of an ROV high definition video camera.

Galatheid crab on a deepwater coral

A galatheid crab ready to battle the Little Hercules ROV

1/3 lobster, 1/3 crab, 1/3 alien . Face looks a little like something from the Predator movie.

A large spiky sea urchin

Sea spider (pycnogonid) seen on the side of a volcanic cone. The sea spider was 30 centimeters wide by 20 centimeters tall with bright orange spindly legs.

Large octopus with large glassy eyes seen near the summit of a seamount that rose to 1550 meters water depth.

Large octopus with large glassy eyes seen near the summit of a seamount that rose to 1550 meters water depth.

A translucent squid on the side of a seamount.

Squid observed on the side of a seamount

A beautiful red fish sitting on the bottom.

Chimaera

A goosefish perched on the bottom.

Hydrothermal vents found on the undersea volcano Kawio Barat (West Kawio) Seamount.

As we came upon the hydrothermal vent source, we could see frozen sulphur and dense populations of shrimp covering rocks.

A vent spewing hydrothermal fluids in the foreground with barnacles covering sulphide chimneys behind.

Close-up imagery showing barnacles covering sulphur structures on Kawio Barat volcano. Their tentacles, or 'cirri', extended like blooming flowers, then folded back into the shell. The white fluff on the cirri are filaments of bacteria that grow in the passing vent water. The barnacles hold them out to improve growth then, apparently, withdraw to 'lick their fingers'.

0.5 to 1 meter tall active and inactive spires on the summit of the Kawio Barat submarine volcano. Spires observed at 1849 meters depth.

The first animals we sighted were clams sparsely scattered over the sediment and white mats, both of which use vent fluids as energy for associated microbes.

Zooming closer with the cameras on the ROV, we can see frozen sulphur rivulets covering the rocks. Molten sulphur at high temperature is black while the yellow sulphur indicates a lower temperature when molten. Diffuse vent fluids in the area promote the growth of bacteria, attracting dense populations of shrimp that graze on the food source.

A closer look at a chimney surface reveals blue-white fluffy bacteria on a white squat lobster, probably a grazer.

The surface of the sulphide chimney has started to oxidize to an orange color. A large scale-worm lurks to the left - it is a predator with large jaws.

In a new site, we can never know for sure what the animals are from vent communities only. But this crab likely belongs to a group known only from hot vents.

Cameras on the ROV reveal a field of sulphur chimneys completely covered with barnacles.

Venting is still active through some of the chimneys. Here a thin spire grows with a black tip and emerging water that is probably over 100 degrees C.

A dense assemblage of barnacles covered rocks and sulphur chimneys on Kawio Barat.

West Kawio (Kawio Barat) Seamount which rises 3800 meters from the seafloor. A 3D view derived from the OKEANOS EXPLORER multi-beam mapping system.

A black smoker chimney named 'Boardwalk' emitting hydrothermal fluids at 644 F (340 C) in the northeastern Pacific Ocean at a depth of 7,260 feet. This smoker is on the Endeavor Segment of the Juan de Fuca ridge system.

Four-way association. Hermit crabs were found in association with soft corals (red - polyps retracted). Note that the hermit crab is also associated with an episymbiontic anemone - the snail shell provides home to both animals. 422 meters depth.