Ready for another expedition?

Tracey_Figure-1Its summertime folks, and it seems like everyone is either heading out to sea, or returning from a recent expedition. If not that, its a conference. Craig reported last week from Evolution 2009, and Kevin’s off to a meeting for the Biogeography of Chemosythetic Ecosystems (ChEss) in Japan. I’m still stuck here in Texas writing my dissertation, but I’ll try to mix it up with random happenings so y’all have something interesting to read.

Are you ready for another Expedition? The Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) group is asking you to follow along with RV Tangaroa, the research vessel of New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, as they sail south – uncovering seamount communities never before seen. On June 12th CenSeam returned to the Graveyard, the location of the very first CenSeam voyage. Check out the scientist stories and seafloor maps. There’s more on deep-corals, from researcher Di Tracey if, like me, you just can’t get enough.

The image above is one of several interesting shots from the Graveyard website.