The deepest confirmed fish sighting is of a snailfish filmed at a depth of 8,336 meters (27,000 feet) below the ocean surface. Other fish may live at similar depths, but it’s likely that no fish lives ...

Photosynthesis and chemosynthesis are both processes by which organisms produce food; photosynthesis is powered by sunlight while chemosynthesis runs on chemical energy. Ecosystems depend upon the ...

Marine snow is mostly biological debris that originates from the top layers of the ocean and drifts to the seafloor, providing a primary source of energy for animals in the deep ocean. Marine snow ...

Symbiotic relationships are an important component of life in the ocean. In such relationships, plants or animals of different species may be dependent on one another for survival. They may share ...

During Dive 12 of the 2026 American Samoa ROV + Mapping Exploration expedition, we saw a variety of glass sponges, including this stalked Caulophacus sponge that was more than 3 meters tall (9.8 feet) ...

From August 20 to September 17, NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners will conduct a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and mapping expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer to explore deep waters in and ...

Our planet is heated by solar radiation, incoming energy from the sun. Because the Earth is round, the angle of the surface relative to the incoming radiation differs with latitude. At low latitudes, ...

An acoustic Doppler current profiler, or ADCP, is a device that uses sound waves to measure the speed and direction of currents throughout the water column. Understanding how water in the ocean moves ...

As the greatest migration on Earth, the daily vertical movement of zooplankton in the ocean has a massive influence on sea life and the global climate. Every day, billions and billions of animals, ...

Multibeam sonar is a type of active sonar system used to map the seafloor and detect objects in the water column or along the seafloor. The multiple physical sensors of the sonar – called a transducer ...

Autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, are independent underwater robots used to explore our ocean. Unlike remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), AUVs are untethered from a ship, allowing the robots to ...

NOAA Ocean Exploration includes a range of members, organized into a series of divisions dedicated to carrying out our mission.