The DEEPEND Crew will be setting sail this Friday, April 30th for their third midwater trawling research cruise, DP03. They will spend 15 days at sea collecting environmental and biological data in the northern Gulf of Mexico surrounding the Deepwater Horizon site. On board will be 15 scientists whose expertise includes areas such as taxonomy, sound scattering, genetics, oceanography, and light. The teacher-at-sea for this cruise will be Christia Hewlett who teaches marine biology at Sheridan Hills Christian School. There will be one additional guest on this cruise who has never been to sea before – Flat Stanley! You may remember seeing him before as a child or maybe have received him in the mail from friends or family. He will be blogging about his experiences at sea and sharing photos here. In addition to our scientific mission, we will be filming activities onboard for two upcoming documentaries and for public and educational outreach.

Dr. Tracey Sutton, Director and Principal Investigator of the Deep Pelagic Nekton Dynamics Consortium, was interviewed by COMPASS.  COMPASS's vision is to see more scientists engage, and engage effectively, in the public discourse about the environment. Through trainings, coaching, and real-world connections, Compass empowers researchers to build the communications skills, networks, and relationships they need to realize this vision.

You can read the entire blog post at this link.

Dr. Joe Lopez gave an overview talk on the DEEPEND Consortium and the Lopez lab to the NSU Lifelong Learning Institute titled "The DEEPEND Consortium Project: Characterization of Pelagic Life in the Gulf of Mexico Six Years after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill"

The talk was well attended by 25-30 learners.  Many questions were asked about the fate of the oil from the spill, what energy 'powered' bioluminescence, and what the term 'pelagic' means. 

You can learn more about the Lifelong Learning Institute here.