Recently, members of the DEEPEND|RESTORE Consortium traveled to the Gulf of Mexico Conference, GoMCON, in Tampa, Florida and had a great experience. GoMCON is a bi-annual conference that brings together scientists, students, stakeholders, industry leaders, and so much more to network and present on research being conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. Nova Southeastern Graduate students from Dr. Sutton’s Oceanic Ecology Laboratory, Hannah Johnson, Katie Lim, and Travis Kirk, students from Dr. Rosanna Milligan’s DEEPSCAPE Laboratory, Sidney Trimble and Ian Areford, as well as Florida International University Postdoc Dr. Pedo Peres were able to be in attendance for this year’s conference. Liberty Juno, a student in Dr. Jon Moore’s Deep Sea Ichthyology lab, attended the conference alongside the NSU students.

 Both Dr. Tracey Sutton and Dr. Rosanna Milligan gave oral presentations on their research during the conference. Students Sidney Trimble and Ian Areford presented their poster on Length Weight Relationships of Mesopelagic fish in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Student Liberty Juno presented a poster on the “Occurrence, Neuroanatomy, and Morphometrics of Slickhead Leptochilichthys in the Gulf of Mexico.” Students Travis Kirk, Katie Lim, Ian Areford, and Dr. Pedro Peres gave presentations during the pelagic portion of the conference. Katie’s presentation entitled “The Trophic Ecology and Vertical Distribution of the Deep-Pelagic Fish Scombrolabrax heterolepis (Scombriformes: Scombrolabracidae), an ‘Advanced’ Fish in a World of ‘Primitive’ Fishes” looked at the diet of an evolutionarily advanced fish species compared to other deep-sea predators; Travis’ presentation entitled, “Trophic Ecology of Black Swallowers,” examined the diet of a previously understudied genus of fishes finding this fish to be a super predator of the deep sea; and Ian’s presentation entitled Mesopelagic Fish Biomass Patterns in Comparison to Major Oceanographic Features looked at the spatial distribution patterns of various stomiids fishes in relation to different features of the Gulf of Mexico such as, the Mississippi river plume and the loop current. Finally, Dr. Pedro Peres presented on the changes in genomic diversity of three abundant deep-pelagic fish species in the Gulf of Mexico over 10 years. All our members did a fantastic job with their presentations, and we are so proud of all their hard work!

 The graduate students were able to spend three days immersing themselves in new and exciting research presentations, innovations in the field, and more. The conference was a wonderful opportunity for our students to also investigate various fields of employment within the Gulf of Mexico and allowed the opportunity to network with companies and non-profits, both in the private and public sector, and with industry leaders. Students were able to learn different tools in order to look at environmental science as it integrates with policy and management to better plan for restoration and ecosystem resilience. Tools such as, changes to mapping the coastal and offshore systems to data management, broadened our graduate students’ minds to how all the various scientists, stakeholders, and policy makers work together to make informed changes. Overall, this year’s Gulf of Mexico Conference was a wonderful experience! Our graduate students and principal investigators had a great time exploring the wonderful city of Tampa, even visiting the aquarium there, while enjoying all the conference had to offer. We look forward to the next GoMCON in 2026!

Some of the DEEPEND team members attended the Ocean Twilight Zone symposium at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution this week. Tracey Sutton, Heather Judkins, Zan Milligan, and Matt Woodstock presented their work over the three-day biological portion of the symposium. Tracey and Heather focused their talks on fish and cephalopods both of which included examining ways to examine biomass and its' importance related to carbon transfer through the deep ocean and were part of a panel discussion on the topic. Matt presented his work on food web modeling of the mesopelagic zone. Zan highlighted her work on mesopelagic fishes and their vertical distribution patterns. Overall, the team had a great time working and learning with their deep-sea colleagues at the event!

The journal Deep-Sea Research was first published in October 1953, directed by the Joint Commission on Oceanography to focus on the deep-sea floor as the main theme. The scope of the journal, considered one of the most prestigious in oceanography, has since grown to encompass the entire open ocean from the air-sea interface to beneath the sea floor. Of over 10,000 papers published, 70 were selected as the most significant in the 70-year history of the journal. A paper entitled A global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone (Sutton et al., 2017), which included DEEPEND data, was chosen by the journal as one of the 70. This paper, which characterizes the regional scales over which the ocean interior varies in terms of biodiversity and function, has been actively cited by the scientific, resource management, marine policy, marine conservation, and marine education sectors.

*T.T. Sutton, M.R. Clark, D.C. Dunn, P.N. Halpin, A.D. Rogers, J. Guinotte, S.J. Bograd, M.V. Angel, J.A.A. Perez, K. Wishner, R.L. Haedrich, D.J. Lindsay, J.C. Drazen, A. Vereshchaka, U. Piatkowski, T. Morato, K. Błachowiak-Samołyk, B.H. Robison, K.M. Gjerde, A. Pierrot-Bults, P. Bernal, G. Reygondeau, and M. Heino (2017). A global biogeographic classification of the mesopelagic zone. Deep-Sea Research Part I Oceanographic Research Papers, 126, pp. 85-102, 10.1016/j.dsr.2017.05.006

We completed our DP09 cruise successfully, returning to port on May 12th. The weather and gear cooperated, allowing us to get our full complement of stations and tows completed! This was the last cruise of our current RESTORE award, so now our focus goes to processing our data, analyzing our findings and producing products that can be used by a wide variety of resource managers around the country.

We couldn’t have been successful without our entire team- both out at sea and back on land. A huge thank you to the crew of the R/V Point Sur for their continued efforts to provide a safe and productive ship for us to work on!

If you’re interested in what we focused on during the cruise, please visit our blog which is located under the “Products” tab and then under the “Outreach” tab.

Front row: Tracey Sutton; Second row, left to right: Natalie Howard, Haley Glasmann, Hannah Johnson, Heather Bracken-Grissom, and Danté Fenolio; Third row, left to right: Mike Vecchione, Stormie Collins, Pedro Peres, Jeff Martin, Lisa Rosemann, Kevin Boswell, Jon Moore, Tamara Frank, and Heather Judkins.