Mike Vardaro

There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea!

Pythia’s Oasis (discovered in 2014 and recently in the news again) is a unique, high-flux methane seep site located 50 miles off the OR coast, with fluid chemistries unlike any yet observed in the world’s oceans. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; V15 and WHOI; V16, V17, edited by E. Pinneo, UW

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.

Happy World Octopus Day 2026! As the ROV approached this deep-sea Granelodone octopus, it inflated its tentacles, assuming a shape reminiscent of a pile of ripe plums! Maybe a threat display or defensive posture? 🚢🧪🌊🐙 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, Dive J2-1787, V26; ed. by O. Parsons & M. White (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

An ASHES vent tour: A variety of animals, including palm worms, scale worms, and tube worms live in extreme conditions in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field, nearly a mile below the ocean’s surface at the summit of Axial Seamount. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI/; J2-1650, V25, edited by E. Pinneo (UW)

Crabs!!! In a slight change of pace from the shark content, we also saw a tiny crab hiding in a fuzzy, bacteria-covered extinct vent and spider crabs walking through a giant field of chemosynthetic clams at Axial Caldera International District Vent Field. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1788; V26

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).

Day 9 of VISIONS ‘26! ROV Jason, a mile below surface, 🫶 our HD camera. A beehive vent at the top of Inferno chimney, and the tubeworm covered side of Mushroom hydrothermal chimney backlit during testing of the camera. Follow along at the Interactive Oceans VISIONS 26 website (link in bio). 🚢🧪🌊

Day 7 of VISIONS ‘26! ROV Jason deploying with the zooplankton sonar latched below, Justin collecting water samples from a Niskin bottle on the recovered CTD cast, and a beautiful cluster of ctenophores. Follow along at the Interactive Oceans VISIONS 26 website (link in bio). 🚢🧪🌊

Day 5 of VISIONS ‘26! Pic 1: RCA APL engineer M. Reddoch examines the Jason "undervator" hosting a digital still camera to be deployed at the Oregon Shelf Site. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V26. 🚢🧪

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.

Our VISIONS’26 Cruise page is live! The team is hard at work getting ready for this 12th expedition (5-19 Aug 2026) since the Regional Cabled Array installation in 2014. 🚢🧪🌊 Follow along with our expedition at the Interactive Oceans website: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions26-li...

Behold the workhorse of ocean science — the CTD Rosette! One cast. Thousands of meters. A snapshot of the water column from surface to seafloor 🌊🚢🧪 RCA OOI cruises primarily use CTD casts to measure ocean properties and take verification water samples near the Shallow and Deep Profiler Moorings.

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

Creating A Shared Consciousness About the Oceans - New Ways to Interact with the Oceans, produced in 2014 by UW Oceanography undergraduates Katie Bigham and Jessie Turner as part of the Ocean 411 Seagoing Research and Discovery Class. They sailed on Leg 1 of the OOI-NSF-UW VISIONS'14 Expedition. 🚢🧪🌊

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

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

March is #womenshistorymonth! The 2026 theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” and we are celebrating the leadership and contributions of the women leaders of the OOI Regional Cabled Array, as well as all women in sustainability efforts across STEM fields. 🌊🚢🧪

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. 🌊🚢🧪

Deborah Kelley, UW oceanography prof & director of the NSF OOI-RCA, was awarded the 2026 Wallace S. Broecker Medal on Feb. 24 by The Oceanography Society, recognizing her scientific, educational, and mentorship contributions to marine science. Congrats Deb! 🌊🚢🧪 environment.uw.edu/news/2026/02...

Come learn about ocean science, hear from OOI-RCA Director Deb Kelley (awarded the Broecker Medal), and attend the OOI Facilities Board Town Hall (ooifb.org/meetings/ooi...) at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. See you there! 🌊🚢🧪

This deep-sea octopus wants to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day on behalf of the OOI Regional Cabled Array team! ❤️ 🌊🚢🧪

Feeding frenzy! A swarm of hagfish tear apart a N Pacific Frostfish (?) at Hydrate Ridge offshore of OR. They look like eels but evolved ~550 million years ago, before sharks and bony fish! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J-1719, V25; thanks to Dr. Brian Sidlauskas (Tulane) for the tentative carcass ID!

The Inferno edifice in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field in 2025. Superheated fluids streaming out of the chimneys contain dissolved gases and metals used by microbes within chemosynthetic organisms, which can completely encase sensors faster than you’d expect! PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J-1707, V25 🌊🚢🧪

Fried Egg or “Egg-Yolk” jelly seen by the ROV Jason at Axial Base. These large jellyfish feed on other jellies and inverts at deep-water sites, and other species often live on or around them for protection. 🌊🚢🧪 More videos: www.youtube.com/@interactive... PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI: J-1709, V25

R/V Atlantis SSSG Allison Heater helps V’25 student Nate Bodensteiner and RCA scientist Joe Duprey cock Niskin bottles for water sampling at Axial Seamount (2600 m depth). Analyses of the recovered fluids help verify data from the RCA moorings and seafloor sensors. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, UW, V25

Two roughtail skates sit in the mud among carbonate rubble at Southern Hydrate Ridge. These shark relatives are often seen lying partially buried on the seafloor at productive sites like this, where their prey (shellfish, worms, and small fish) are abundant. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1715, V25

VISIONS students help tech Alex Rose (2nd from left) prep a “Mosquito” instrument. It injects dye into the seafloor at Southern Hydrate Ridge then sucks fluid into coiled tubes to measure sediment seawater flow. It's complicated to assemble so more hands are always helpful! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, UW, V24

might watch this video 100 times before the day is over

One month in a minute and a half! Enjoy this video highlight reel from our 2025 OOI-RCA maintenance cruise, and check out our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@interactive...) for more underwater video and sea life highlights. Happy Holidays! 🌊🚢🧪

A lava "whirlpool" formed during the 2011 Axial Seamount eruption and frozen in time. When subsurface magma erupts onto the seafloor as 1200°C lava, it hits near-freezing seawater and crusts over with a layer of glass, forming incredible river-like shapes! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF/OOI/WHOI; J2-1737, V25.

VISIONS'25 student technicians Alex Rose and Emily Pinneo help sample diffuse fluids entrained in a recovered osmosampler from the ASHES hydrothermal field. The samples provide a year-long record of hydrothermal fluid composition. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25

UW RCA student worker Jolee Thirtyacre and one of our VISIONS’25 students assisting with CTD water sample processing. VISIONS students experience life at sea, stand ROV watches, and assist with many aspects of science conducted onboard the ship. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.

On October 24, 2025 the RCA team participated in One Ocean Week Seattle aboard the historic sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen, Norway! Over 200 people came to view poster presentations and demonstration tables-ours included! 🌊🚢🧪

I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA 10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)