iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Genioliparis ferox, living 2900 m beneath the surface of the NE Pacific, is an extremely rare snailfish - our 2014 cruise was the first time a living example had been recorded! This "weird fish" is a ferocious predator, but little else is known about them.🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; Dive R1757; V14

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Axial is the most active underwater volcano off the WA & OR coasts, having erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015 - and it is poised to erupt again! A full-length video tour of this site is coming soon... see link in bio.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

An ASHES vent tour: A variety of animals, including palm worms, scale worms, and tube worms live in extreme conditions in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field, nearly a mile below the ocean’s surface at the summit of Axial Seamount. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI/; J2-1650, V25, edited by E. Pinneo (UW)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Read our cruise blogs and view more photos at the Interactive Oceans VISIONS’26 website (link in bio).

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Crabs!!! In a slight change of pace from the shark content, we also saw a tiny crab hiding in a fuzzy, bacteria-covered extinct vent and spider crabs walking through a giant field of chemosynthetic clams at Axial Caldera International District Vent Field. 🚢🧪🌊 Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1788; V26

Tiny crab inside a basalt formation covered in fuzzy bacteria

Orange crab next to worms and clams covering a white crack in black rock

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Sharks!!! As promised, video clips of some of the blue shark activity we saw during the descent of ROV Jason dive J2-1780 at the OR Offshore site. 🌊🚢🧪 Credit: O. Parsons; UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1780, V26. Read cruise blogs and see more photos at the InteractiveOceans VISIONS’26 website (link in bio).

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

VISIONS‘26 had some interesting encounters, including a few very active blue sharks who knocked a light off the back of the Jason ROV! Should have video soon! 🚢🧪🌊 Pic 1 & 2: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1782, V26. Pic 3: A. Chang, UW; V26. See more photos at the InteractiveOceans V26 site (link in bio)

Two sharks swimming in front of the Jason ROV

Blue shark swimming from left to right looking towards the camera

Shark swimming near the ocean surface next to a wire going into the water

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Day 9 of VISIONS ‘26! ROV Jason, a mile below surface, 🫶 our HD camera. A beehive vent at the top of Inferno chimney, and the tubeworm covered side of Mushroom hydrothermal chimney backlit during testing of the camera. Follow along at the Interactive Oceans VISIONS 26 website (link in bio). 🚢🧪🌊

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

PC: M. Elend, J. Thirtyacre, University of Washington, V26, UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1781, V26.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Day 7 of VISIONS ‘26! ROV Jason deploying with the zooplankton sonar latched below, Justin collecting water samples from a Niskin bottle on the recovered CTD cast, and a beautiful cluster of ctenophores. Follow along at the Interactive Oceans VISIONS 26 website (link in bio). 🚢🧪🌊

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Pic 2: A newly deployed digital still camera at the Oregon Offshore site visited by a "herd" of black cod. UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; J2-1779, V26. Pic 3: CTD going over the side for a shallow water profile. Credit: A. Carter, University of Washington; V26.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Day 5 of VISIONS ‘26! Pic 1: RCA APL engineer M. Reddoch examines the Jason "undervator" hosting a digital still camera to be deployed at the Oregon Shelf Site. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington, V26. 🚢🧪

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

The ROV Jason is aboard the R/V Roger Revelle and all OOI gear has also been loaded onto the ship in preparation for the VISIONS’26 cruise, leaving on Aug 9th! Follow along with our expedition at the InteractiveOceans website (link in bio) 🚢🧪🌊 PC1: O. Parsons, UW, V26 PC2: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V26.

Blue and white ship at a dock with crane extended off the aft deck

Back deck of a ship filled with oceanographic equipment

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Come check out the student blogs and live video feeds of deck ops and ROV dives to depths of 2900 m! We'll be working at the largest and most active volcano off our coast (Axial Seamount) and some of the most biologically productive waters in the ocean along the Cascadia Margin off Newport, Oregon.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Our VISIONS’26 Cruise page is live! The team is hard at work getting ready for this 12th expedition (5-19 Aug 2026) since the Regional Cabled Array installation in 2014. 🚢🧪🌊 Follow along with our expedition at the Interactive Oceans website: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions26-li...

Screenshot of the VISIONS'26 cruise website with images of a research vessel, octopus, and ROV

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

The rosette includes conductivity, temp & pressure (CTD), O2, chlorophyll, and particle sensors, plus Niskin bottles with watertight seals triggered at selected depths. PC1: K. Whitmer, University of Washington, V22 PC2: N. Liew, Queens College, V25 PC3: M. Elend, University of Washington, V23

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Behold the workhorse of ocean science — the CTD Rosette! One cast. Thousands of meters. A snapshot of the water column from surface to seafloor 🌊🚢🧪 RCA OOI cruises primarily use CTD casts to measure ocean properties and take verification water samples near the Shallow and Deep Profiler Moorings.

Circular frame of gray bottles being lowered into the water

Two students around a large cylindrical metal frame containing a rosette of gray bottles

Large metal frame with gray bottles being lifted above the deck of a ship at night

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 18/07/2026

Thanks to the NSF OOI Regional Cabled Array, vent life (first discovered in 1977) can now be viewed live 2,100 m (~7,000 ft) below the surface! The RCA HD camera gives us an unprecedented view into an underwater world 1.5 miles deep and 200 miles offshore. 🌊🚢🧪 VC: J. Thirtyacre, Univ. of Washington

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

Chuck McGuire, a Principal Engineer at UW-APL and NSF’s OOI Cabled Array, used a drone in 2017 to get an “eye in the sky” view of the research vessel Roger Revelle, operated by SIO. We sail on the R/V Revelle again this year (Aug 9-18), so stay tuned! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: C. McGuire & M. Elend, UW-APL, V17

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

They're among the largest species in the world, and adults usually have between 16 to 24 limbs! Aka appendages or arms (even if they're not true "arms" from an anatomical standpoint). 😀

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

These starbursts aren't fireworks, they're Sunflower sea stars! Populations are still recovering from sea star wasting disease, so every sighting of them is exciting. Here’s to a safe, happy 4th of July and a future where these stars continue to shine! 🎆🌊🚢🧪 PC: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive R1756, V14

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Learn about the Regional Cabled Array operated by the University of Washington with this short film written, directed, and produced by Sarah Smith. Full video on our YouTube channel (link in bio). 🌊🧪🚢

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

This week we took a quick trip Lake Washington to calibrate an echosounder for deployment this summer. A tungsten carbide sphere was dangled below the boat and moved around in the “beams” produced by the transducers. Stay tuned for cruise updates in August! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. Vardaro & M. White, UW, V26

Cylindrical instrument housings and orange transducer heads attached to a blue gantry crane on a boat in a lake

Woman wearing a life vest with a squid drawn on it

Engineer looking at a laptop while another engineer can be seen through the window raising a fishing line that is attached to the tungsten sphere below the boat

Woman posing with a boathook like a whaler

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

I had to trim the video to upload to Bluesky, but you can see the whole thing (and more videos and imagery) here: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/new-ways-to-...

interactiveoceans.washington.edu

New Ways to Interact with the Ocean – OOI Regional Cabled Array

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Using stunning video, they highlighted their vision and hopes about how the cabled component of NSF's Ocean Observatories Initiative would change the way people are able to interact with the oceans. 2026 update: Katie is now a postdoc at UW using AI machine learning to analyze underwater imagery!

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

Creating A Shared Consciousness About the Oceans - New Ways to Interact with the Oceans, produced in 2014 by UW Oceanography undergraduates Katie Bigham and Jessie Turner as part of the Ocean 411 Seagoing Research and Discovery Class. They sailed on Leg 1 of the OOI-NSF-UW VISIONS'14 Expedition. 🚢🧪🌊

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 30/05/2026

Pretty pink predatory polyps! Unlike hard corals that thrive in shallow, sunlit areas, soft corals do not build reefs and thrive in the deep ocean. These colorful colonial carnivores attach to hard surfaces and grab food with their tentacles. 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1668 (V24), J2-1542 (V23)

pink soft coral with branching polyps with eight fringed tentacles growing on a dark lava rock

pink mushroom soft coral with a round "body" covered in fringed polyps with eight fringed tentacles

White carbonate outcrop covered with pink mushroom soft corals growing all over it, including beneath in a crevice

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Dolphins frolicking at sunset! A pod of Short-beaked common dolphins leaps and swims in synchrony off the bow of the R/V Atlantis, as the sun sets over the open ocean in the NE Pacific. 🌊🧪🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI; V25; edited by O. Parsons (UW)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Rattail fishes swim alongside the ROV at Axial Seamount. Rattails are highly efficient swimmers attracted to any disturbance, so they are one of the most commonly seen fish during deep-sea operations. But we never get tired of watching them! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1729, V25; ed: E. Pinneo (UW)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Happy Mother’s Day from the OOI Regional Cabled Array team to all the moms in marine science and around the world. Here we see an early RCA team member at work, learning that oceanography is fun for everyone! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: M. White, University of Washington, V25.

Child sitting and looking at a screen showing livestreamed underwater ROV imagery

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Remarkable communities thrive in perpetual darkness in the ASHES hydrothermal vent field at Axial Seamount during the RCA 2025 summer expedition. The underwater hot springs emit >300°C fluids nearly a mile beneath the oceans’ surface! 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1728, V25; ed. by E. Pinneo (UW)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

Tanner crabs scuffle by a soft coral on a 60 m limestone pinnacle at S. Hydrate Ridge (~800 m depth) methane seep site. The larger crab is caught mid-molt and its smaller foe, emboldened by a stylish anemone headpiece, comes in swinging. 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25; ed: O. Parsons (UW)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

A spider crab, living >6000 feet beneath the ocean’s surface, climbs down a precipice at the edge of the Dymond hydrothermal vent field near the base of Axial Seamount. These crabs are slow moving but major predators and scavengers at Axial! 🧪🌊🚢 VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1650, V24, ed. by E. Pinneo

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Two opalescent nudibranchs navigate across platforms on the Regional Cabled Array shallow profiler moorings (200 m depth) near the base of the Cascadia Margin and Axial Seamount. See more biology videos and photos on our website and YouTube channel! (link in bio) VC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, V25 🌊🚢🧪

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

The OOI-RCA has 3 Shallow Profiler Moorings: an instrumented platform at 200 m depth and a winched Science Pod containing 9 sensors that travels to near surface and back 9 times daily: to date, >55,000 profiles traversing >32 million meters! Learn more on our website (link in bio) 🌊🚢🧪 VC: UW/CSSF

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

PC4: OOI-RCA Systems Engineer Dana Manalang (UW-APL) high-fiving her underwater robot friend (robotsdiscover.com)

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

PC3: Wendi Ruef, Lead Data QA/QC Scientist, helping prep an instrument for deployment with an APL engineer and UW student. Credit: M. Elend, UW, 2023.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

PC2: Deborah Kelley, UW Professor of Oceanography and director of the US National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative Regional Cabled Array.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Photo 1: VISIONS’25 (left to right) Co-chief Scientist Mariela White, Network Engineer Nataliya Vorobyeva, Chief Scientist Dr. Katie Bigham, Lead Laboratory Technician Jolee Thirtyacre. Credit: M. Elend, UW, 2025.

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

March is #womenshistorymonth! The 2026 theme is “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future” and we are celebrating the leadership and contributions of the women leaders of the OOI Regional Cabled Array, as well as all women in sustainability efforts across STEM fields. 🌊🚢🧪

Four people leaning on a ship's rail in Newport Harbor

One kneeling and two standing people working on oceanographic equipment on the back deck of a ship

Woman high-fiving a remotely-operated oceanographic robot

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Stunning jellies photographed at Southern Hydrate Ridge during the 2025 RCA cruise. Pic 1 is a Dinner Plate jelly, active hunters that can grow to 8 inches across; Pic 2 is Voragonema pedunculata, a small red jelly that can have up to 2000 tiny tentacles! 🌊🚢🧪 PC1 & 2: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1744, V25

Flat purple jellyfish with swirling tentacles

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

A white Neptunea snail crawling near Southern Hydrate Ridge, and another sitting on top of its yellow egg case. When they find suitable rocks, the snails create huge nurseries of 8-12" towers, each containing thousands of eggs, before they topple off and die. 🌊🚢🧪🐌 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1738, V25

white snail sitting on yellow egg case tower

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 07/03/2026

Our VISIONS’25 UW Oceanography students included some amazing artists who helped boost morale and maintain shipboard mental health via creative pursuits! Their incredible creations included a) two octopuses and a rattail by Oliver Parsons and b) a blue heron and secretary bird by Leo Couchon. 🌊🚢🧪

A blue and black ink sketch of octopuses and a fish next to a colorful painting of two birds

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 28/02/2026

Deborah Kelley, UW oceanography prof & director of the NSF OOI-RCA, was awarded the 2026 Wallace S. Broecker Medal on Feb. 24 by The Oceanography Society, recognizing her scientific, educational, and mentorship contributions to marine science. Congrats Deb! 🌊🚢🧪 environment.uw.edu/news/2026/02...

Woman holding rock with yellow snail egg cases attached to it

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 21/02/2026

Come learn about ocean science, hear from OOI-RCA Director Deb Kelley (awarded the Broecker Medal), and attend the OOI Facilities Board Town Hall (ooifb.org/meetings/ooi...) at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. See you there! 🌊🚢🧪

Woman standing next to an the ROPOS oceanographic ROV

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

This deep-sea octopus wants to wish you a happy Valentine’s Day on behalf of the OOI Regional Cabled Array team! ❤️ 🌊🚢🧪

A deep-sea Graneledone octopus with arms spread out sitting on a basalt rock at Axial Seamount

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

I tried a couple of other people to get other opinions, but you were the fastest (and @frable.bsky.social is on a cruise). It's hard to see through the frenzy! 😂

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InteractiveOceans @ooi-cabledarray.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Feeding frenzy! A swarm of hagfish tear apart a N Pacific Frostfish (?) at Hydrate Ridge offshore of OR. They look like eels but evolved ~550 million years ago, before sharks and bony fish! 🌊🚢🧪 PC: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J-1719, V25; thanks to Dr. Brian Sidlauskas (Tulane) for the tentative carcass ID!

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