Ocean Exploration Trust's 2025 field season took E/V Nautilus across the Pacific, with seven multi-disciplinary expeditions exploring some of the region’s most underexplored waters. Expeditions dove into the highly active submarine volcanoes of the Mariana Islands, traced the maritime heritage of the Battles of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, surveyed seamounts in the Marshall Islands, investigated the seafloor around Howland and Baker Islands, and revealed the abyssal habitats of the Cook Islands.  

Read our 2025 Field Season Report here

We spotted this carnivorous sponge, in the Family Cladorhizidae, while exploring the waters of the Cook Islands. Instead of filter feeding like most sponges, it uses its spicules to catch small creatures in the deep sea, like crustaceans. This one was sighted with an anemone (Actiniaria)!