Up Close and Personal With Deep Sea Samples
In 2026, the wet lab aboard E/V Nautilus got some major upgrades to help us photograph and study deep-sea samples we retrieve with our ROVs. Thanks to this new equipment, which includes a Canon EOS RP Mirrorless camera body and Leica EZ4W microscope, we’re treated to some spectacular up-close views of the organisms that live at the bottom of the ocean,
Check out some snapshots of samples collected during the NA181 expedition to Wake Atoll in this photo album.
Exploration of Wake Island's Deep Sea
Located roughly midway between the Hawaiian and Mariana Islands, Wake Island is one of the most isolated land masses on Earth. While there have been some recent expeditions to this remote region, the vast majority of the 407,241 square kilometers of seafloor surrounding Wake remains unmapped and uncharacterized, thereby representing one of the most poorly surveyed areas under US jurisdiction.
