Yes, my friends, it is time for another DEEPEND cruise! 

We will be heading out late on Friday, Sept. 6th into the Gulf of Mexico on one of our favorite vessels, the R/V Point Sur.  This trip will be a little different than our past DEEPEND cruises as we have received funding for a new project, "Deep Sea Benefits".  We will be using acoustics, our trusty MOC10 net, and perhaps have a couple new projects to share once we are underway.

The team will be examining the interactions of the mesopelagic and the deep-benthic regions along the outer continental slope at three locations in the northern GoM.  This project is really special in that we will be working with other existing projects in the region (ROV's, benthic landers) to hopefully create a full picture of the connectivity between the surface and seafloor when we analyze data from all parties.  VERY exciting stuff!

This project will run in parallel for the next four years to our long-term DEEPEND monitoring of the midwater (next five years) in the northern GoM. 

We are making plans, creating station maps, and packing everything up for next week as we set off on our first Deep Sea Benefits cruise!

We will be updating the shiptracker on our DEEPEND home page along the way and will be posting blogs here throughout our adventure.  Stay tuned!