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Language: en-US

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Here at NOAA, researchers are exploring the
deep sea to better understand our ocean

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and its fascinating marine life and unusual
habitats.

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We are using unmanned vehicles similar to
those NASA uses to search for alien life on

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other planets.

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In two thousand nineteen, we traveled off
the U-S coast... and found some amazing things….

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Let’s take a look.

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“Oh my gosh it’s a feeding frenzy, oh
my gosh.”

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Eighty miles off the coast of South Carolina,
deep below the surface, there’s a big fight

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going on for dinner. Scientists on a NOAA
ship are watching this scene with robot cameras.

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“What are they eating? A swordfish?

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Oh the grouper has a shark. ...What?

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Zoom
out zoom out.

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Oh my gosh! Yes, that has a whole shark in its mouth.”

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Wow, that was intense. And what’s amazing
about this is that researchers around the

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world can follow the action on a live video
feed to learn more about life in the ocean.

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Further north, in an underwater canyon off
New England, we found another dinner scene.

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Take a look at this tug of war over a dead
squid.

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Scavenging can be a way of life for creatures
on the seafloor. They rely on dead animals

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that drift down from above.

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“That crab’s like no you can’t have
my squid. These cutthroat eels are pretty

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hardcore when it comes to feeding. Would you
say they’re pretty cut-throat Megan?

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I would.”

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As you can see, on the seafloor, everything
gets recycled. Nothing goes to waste.

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“Go crab for keeping hold of your meal.”

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That is life on the ocean floor. We are also finding important new habitats.

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These huge mounds of deepwater coral extend
all the way from Florida to the Carolinas

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and could be thousands of years old.

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We were lucky enough to explore two mound
features that revealed extensive, healthy

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Lophelia coral reefs. Before this expedition,
nobody knew they were even there.

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Scientists want to know if the coral mounds
are connected or grow in patches. This year,

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we found that corals in this area are much
more extensive than anyone thought.

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Sometimes scientists get lucky. Last summer
in the Gulf of Mexico they saw something

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otherworldly. A glimpse of a giant squid
that is rarely seen by humans.

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This footage was captured by a camera system
that films the deep ocean without disturbing

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light-sensitive creatures. It uses red light
invisible to most deep-sea inhabitants, as

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well as a lure that looks just like a glowing jellyfish.
This camera system is one of many advanced

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tools used to explore the sea.

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Exploring underwater on this planet may be
a lot like exploring an ocean on another planet.

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Engineers have to build machines that can
survive extreme pressure and temperatures

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and one day, ROVs like these could be diving
in an ice-covered alien ocean.

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We are curious about how the ocean works and
what lives in it. But people also rely on

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the ocean for food...energy, medicines...and
for their livelihoods. We can’t survive

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without the ocean.

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That’s why we need to understand how it
works and how it’s changing.

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Look what scientists found off the coast of
California, in the Monterey Bay National Marine

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Sanctuary.
Scavengers are feasting on a dead whale carcass

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that sank to the bottom. It’s a good day
to be an octopus!

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To see more amazing footage and follow our
expeditions live, go to NOAA’s Ocean Explorer

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website
...or visit Ocean Today for more videos like

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this one...
So join us as we explore the ocean and the

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creatures that call it home.