The Plankton Chronicles

WARNING: Scrolling down might result in relinquishing a good portion of your Monday watching videos of squishy, wonderful plankton. If this is the kind of procrastination you are looking for, then by all means, enjoy. However, Deep Sea News, our partners, and affiliates are not responsible for your lack of productivity in watching said videos, only in providing you the coolest ocean science available. Consider yourself warned.

So perhaps I have been living under a rock, but I don’t know how I haven’t seen this website till now. I recently stumbled upon a stroke of ocean science video magic known as, “The Plankton Chronicles.” In association with the Tara Oceans Expedition and the Observatoire Oceanologique de Villefranche-sur-Mer (OOV), marine biologist Christian Sardet and his team at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Paris University have created stunning educational compilations on many of our oceans gelatinous friends. Devoted to a global study of plankton in all oceans, Sardet initiated the Plankton Chronicles project to combine science and art in conveying the diversity and beauty of plankton. From adorable pteropods to carnivorous ctenophores, this ever-expanding collection of films has something for everyone.

WATCH THEM ALL RIGHT NOW!!!

If you just can’t get enough plankton from the Chronicles site (really who can?) you are in luck! Sardet recently compiled the book “Plankton: Wonders of the Drifting World” set to release May 2015. At first I was actually pretty sad as I thought you could only get this in French and I thought I was just going to have to buy it for the pretty pictures alone. Turns out, it’s in English too, so if you would like to make a donation to my copy or the DSN library, we accept all major forms of credit card, travelers cheques, doubloons, diamonds, etc.

Christian Sardet, along with his Tara Oceans Expedition colleague, Michael Sieracki, will also be gracing the halls of the NMNH on April 3rd to share in their adventures on the expedition and wow attendees with the awesomeness of plankton through stunning photographs and short videos.

Whoever gets to go…I am super jelly of you. Pun intended.