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Trash Detective and marine ecologist Chelsea Rochman cruises through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, net in hand, scooping up plastic, fouling communities and more.
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Trash Detectives at Work

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Hatchetfish photographed moments after being pulled from the deep sea in the Oozeki net trawl. These small, silvery fish have large eyes to collect any sunlight that reaches the deep sea. Even in the deep, they are not immune to human impacts; the research
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Hatchetfish

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This 1936 blue whale specimen from the Gulf of Alaska (above: preserved in alcohol, below: CT scan) is part of a rare Smithsonian collection of whale fetuses that were collected in association with commercial whaling operations in the early to mid-20th cen
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Blue Whale Specimen

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Dr. Maya Yamato and colleague John Ososky dissect the head of a deceased stranded fin whale in the Chesapeake Bay to examine soft tissue associated with the ears. In 2015, Yamato’s team of researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural H
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Learning From A Stranded Fin Whale

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The red seaweed Gracilaria vermiculophylla (Gverm).
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Gracilaria vermiculophylla

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Scientists process ARMS
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Processing ARMS

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A view outside the Curasub.
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Visiting the Deep Sea In Curasub

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The Curasub is deployed by the R/V Chapman
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R/V Chapman and Curasub

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Corals Get Covered: The Gulf oil spill was different from many big oil spills in history because oil spewed from a well in the deep sea instead of leaking onto the ocean's surface. GoMRI scientists have found that oil remains in the deep to this day—and
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Corals Get Covered

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Sparrows Send a Message: Seabirds, like the often-photographed pelican, can be hurt when oil soaks their feathers during an oil spill. But what about birds that live on land? A group of GoMRI researchers are studying seaside sparrows, birds that live in ma
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Sparrows Send A Message

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Building a Better Dispersant: When we wash dishes at home, we use dish soap to break up and wash away any oil that is stuck to our plates and utensils. Similarly, stronger soap-like chemicals called dispersants can be used to break up oil spills, like thos
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Building a Better Dispersant

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Eat Your Methane Wheaties: Along with oil, natural gases such as methane spewed out of the deep-sea well during Deepwater Horizon. Researchers had no idea what would happen to this methane: would it bubble to the surface, dissolve in seawater and drift awa
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Eat Your Methane Wheaties

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