Video:
Visit from a Rare Vampire Squid
During our overnight dive on June 27th, the E/V Nautilus team encountered a Vampire Squid (Vampyroteuthis infernalis), a deep-sea cephalopod. It's named the Vampire Squid because of its deep color and red eyes, not because it feeds on blood.
Expedition
ECOGIG
This cruise is part of a larger research program focused on examining the ecosystem-level response to oil and gas in the Gulf of Mexico. The research group leading the cruise is called the Ecosystem Impacts of Oil and Gas Inputs into the Gulf of Mexico (ECOGIG) Consortium, which is made up of scientists from a wide variety of disciplines studying current flow, ocean chemistry, microbial activity, deep-sea coral communities, and everything in between.
