#ocean exploration

[stone-cold-groove]

632 feet down! Popular Science magazine cover illustration detail - September 1965.

[oldtownarchive]

Untitled

Photo: Acacia Johnson

[sophios-draws]

NAUTILUS !!!!! <333

Tilly, aka EV Nautilus and Atlantis' streamer crush. She mainly does seafloor mapping and deep sea exploration using ROVs. You might know her from those youtube videos of scientists getting excited over weird sea creatures (example).

↓ fun facts and design notes ↓

EV Nautilus is a research vessel owned and operated by Ocean Exploration Trust (OET). OET was founded by Robert Ballard, who discovered a whole lot of stuff at the bottom of the ocean, most notably the wreck of the RMS Titanic and the existence of hydrothermal vents. His birthday was actually a few days ago on June 30th! Even at 84 he's still the lead scientist onboard the current expedition. Absolute legend.

OET focuses heavily on science communication/education so they livestream their expeditions and do outreach programs. EV Nautilus has special telepresence systems and a live production studio on board to facilitate broadcasting and live ship-to-shore interactions.

Design Notes:

Jacket - The stripes are based on the (old) EV Nautilus merch that Robert Ballard is wearing in a lot of his photos:

Headset - Gamer headset because she's a streamer lol. The "antenna" are modeled after the main mast.

Satellite Dome - Basically every research vessel has one, but I wanted to feature it on Tilly's design because it felt more relevant for her character.

Leg Warmers - The spiky bits are a reference to the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which is what the EV Nautilus is named after.

Personality - Basically if you combined a streamer with a grade-school teacher. Very friendly, likes to talk, good with kids.

Hobbies - She likes singing and playing guitar! This is a reference to the songwriter Jim Salestrom (1956-2023), who joined the 2014 OET expedition and wrote an album, Nautilus, about the ship. His music is free to download on his website (link).

[mbari-blog]

Fresh from the Deep: MBARI scientists film an elusive dreamer anglerfish in 4K!

Recently, MBARI researchers happened upon the elusive dreamer anglerfish (Oneirodes sp.). It was filmed with MBARI’s ROV Ventana, 781 meters deep in Monterey Canyon.

In 35 years of deep-sea exploration, MBARI’s ROVs have completed more than 7,300 successful dives and recorded more than 28,400 hours of video, yet we have only encountered the dreamer anglerfish 9 times.

[newthings2b-grateful4]

Day 33: they discovered a new species of octopus LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOOO!!!!

A New Species of Tiny Octopus Was Discovered in the Galápagos Islands

An octopus about the size of a golf ball was first spotted in 2015 near Darwin Island. A new study gives it both a formal description and a

[sarahmackattack]

When we look at pictures like this, it's really hard to tell how big the animals are because the open ocean doesn't have much out there for us to compare to!

Sometimes tiny things (like anglerfish*) seem massive, & HUGE animals seem kinda normal.

The squid in this picture? Taningia danae? These bad boys can grow to 7.5 feet.

That means those big photophores are like, lime-lemon sized. HUGE.

*anglerfish are like- NOT big. Most are between golf ball and baseball sized. Some are basketball sized, but that's less common!

Image from Schmidt Ocean

[tumorhead]

STOP watching twitch streamers play fortnite or whatever START watching NOAA Ocean Exploration livestream visitng a shipwreck:

USS Yorktown blown up in WW2. They found a handpainted world map still intact featuring seahorses and propeller motifs. Anemonies growing on old guns: