The DEEPEND Consortium had an interactive outreach booth at the Blazing Mako Fishing Tournament’s Conch-servation Village. The booth was staffed by DEEPEND graduate students and scientists who shared their knowledge about the deep-pelagic Gulf of Mexico with the fishermen and general public attending the event. The booth included several games for participants to play where they learned about light attenuation in the ocean, bioluminescence, and about animal adaptations to the deep sea environment. Participants won prizes for playing including stickers, postcards, t-shirts, and glow in the dark anglerfish tattoos! Keep your eye out for our next event – it could be somewhere near you!

Four DEEPEND scientists presented their work at the Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in New Orleans, LA July 6-10, 2016. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Dr. Sylvia Earle gave the keynote address during the opening plenary during which she emphasized the need for research in the deep sea, specifically mentioning the Gulf of Mexico.

25 Deep-Sea Creatures That Will Creep You Out - These predators from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico range from the astonishing to the macabre.

WHAT IS DEEPEND?

This deep-sea gallery contains images that some might find disturbing. The creatures in it may look like visions stolen from nightmares of the demented, but to be sure, all exist on planet earth. Animals from the eerie to the ethereal in appearance live in a cool, dark world as alien to us as the surface of Venus. Yet it is filled with life, and finding out and cataloging “what’s down there” in the black depths of the Gulf of Mexico is one of the missions of the consortium known as Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics of the Gulf of Mexico (DEEPEND).

Read the entire Sport Fishing Magazine article here.

On June 8th, 2016 two DEEPEND members from Texas A&M University at Galveston attended the first annual World Oceans Day Festival and Art Contest in Galveston, Texas in collaboration with ADDOMEx (another GoMRI consortium). World Oceans Day is the UN-recognized day of celebration and action for the ocean. This year Artist Boat is hosting a community celebration in Galveston at Stewart Beach. The DEEPEND booth showcased DEEPEND's mission as well as exciting fish and invertebrate samples from the Gulf of Mexico!