The 2026 Gulf Conference (GulfCon) took place May 4-7, 2026, at the Mobile Convention Center in Mobile, Alabama. The DEEPEND Consortium participated in the “Examining Gulf Species Declines” workshop, sharing results of the declines we have seen in the deep-pelagic since the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010 and proposing ways in which we can collaborate with other research groups that have seen similar trends. DEEPEND’s Director, Tracey Sutton, provided the framework for the workshop and three other DEEPEND members presented results from their research as well (see list below).

DEEPEND’s Rosanna Milligan & Tracey Sutton chaired a scientific session entitled “The open ocean as a nexus for ecological connectivity in the Gulf,” which featured the research of 10 DEEPEND members including both chairs as well as Ian Areford, Kevin Boswell, Haley Glasmann, and Pedro Peres from FIU, Isabel Romero from University of South Carolina, and Meta Hughes, Bianca Ruiz,  and Sidney Trimble from NSU (see list below). Additionally, DEEPEND Masters student, Jacob Hack, gave a poster presentation of his thesis research. The conference was a huge success and the bulk of our DEEPEND representation at GulfCon are now sailing on the RV Point Sur for our eleventh DEEPEND research cruise! 

Congratulations to all our DEEPEND presenters!

DEEPEND Presentations during Monday’s workshop, May 4, 2026:

1. Tracey Sutton & Rosanna Milligan (NSU) “Declines of deep-pelagic life in the Gulf: take homes from DEEPEND”
2. April Cook (NSU) “A key data gap in the open Gulf: larger nekton as a ‘hidden’ component of deep-pelagic food webs”
3. Haley Glasmann (FIU) “Decoding the depths: Using automated probabilistic echo-solving to develop a refined community timeseries for the deep pelagic in the Northern Gulf”

DEEPEND presentations during Tuesday’s scientific session on May 5, 2026:

1. Ian Areford (FIU) “Connecting Active Acoustics and Net Catch in the Northern Gulf using the Forward Method”
2. Kevin Boswell (FIU) “Advancing Acoustic Perspectives: Lessons from 15 Years of Mesopelagic Sound Scattering Layer Research in the Gulf of Mexico”
3. Haley Glasmann (FIU) “Rhythms of the Deep: Characterizing the Heterogeneity of Diel Scattering Layer Communities with Wideband Echosounding and Probabilistic Echo Solving”
4. Meta Hughes (NSU) “The moon as an ecosystem driver in the open-ocean Gulf: a nighttime case study of the lanternfish Hygophum taaningi”
5. Rosanna Milligan (NSU) “Distribution Patterns of Midwater Fishes in the Gulf: Lessons Learned and New Directions”
6. Pedro Peres (FIU) “Expanding deep-sea research using environmental DNA: DEEPEND|RESTORE efforts towards a reliable mitogenome reference database for open-ocean taxa”
7. Isabel Romero (USC) “Organic pollutants in deep-pelagic shrimp eggs: maternal transfer or direct environmental exposure?”
8. Bianca Ruiz (NSU) “The influence of shelf proximity on mesopelagic fish assemblages in the northern Gulf”
9. Sidney Trimble (NSU) “Estimating the Carbon Flux of a deep-sea Hatchetfish Within the Gulf”
10. Tracey Sutton (NSU) “Closing the data gaps in the offshore Gulf: key findings and future of the DEEPEND|RESTORE science program”

Several DEEPEND members traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, to share DEEPEND’s latest research findings at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting, 22-27 February. The meeting held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) was a huge success boasting an attendance of over 6,000 scientists, researchers, and policymakers from 60 countries. DEEPEND’s Rosanna Milligan and Tracey Sutton chaired a session entitled “The Deep-Pelagic Ocean as a Nexus of Connectivity” which included DEEPEND presentations by Ian Areford, April Cook, Tamara Frank, Haley Glasmann, Rosanna Milligan, and Tracey Sutton. We noted that DEEPEND work was cited during several presentations of outside researchers. New connections were made with other groups around the world to help build upon and disseminate the work of DEEPEND.

Ten members of the DEEPEND team just returned from the 17th Deep-Sea Biology Symposium in Hong Kong, SAR China. The symposium is put on by the Deep-Sea Biology Society (DSBS). Tammy Frank (NSU) presented an invited talk on vision and bioluminescence in the Sensory Biology session. Tracey Sutton (NSU) presented results from the northern Gulf of

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.