Author: Natalie Dillon

Last June, over forty marine scientists from eleven different countries gathered in a crowded conference room at a hotel in Nice to discuss a problem that has been building for decades: we are actively working to protect areas of the Atlantic Ocean that we have never really seen. Governments are required by law to safeguard vulnerable marine ecosystems in areas where they are known or likely to occur. Professor Kerry Howell of Plymouth Marine Laboratory made it clear that day that the key word is “known.” Conservation efforts currently end at the boundaries of what has already been documented by…

Moon jellyfish hover in a tall, neon-lit aquarium in a darkened lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their translucent, bell-shaped bodies expand and contract in a slow, rhythmic pulse. They appear to be nearly weightless. Nearly serene. When it comes to an invertebrate that hasn’t changed in over 500 million years, Nicole Xu watches them with what can only be called true affection. However, since she was a graduate student, Xu has been fascinated by the movement of moon jellyfish, and what she has developed around that fascination is one of the most surprising ocean research projects going on…

The report, which was created by over 100 scientists and subjected to peer review, was released in late September 2025. It was based on decades of in-situ ocean measurements, satellite data, and deep-sea instruments. It was painstakingly created, comprehensive, and detailed. Additionally, it landed in a news cycle full of other stories, and the majority of what it contained—nine distinct warnings about the current state of the ocean—barely made an impression outside of specialized circles. Correcting that seems worthwhile. Every year, the Copernicus Marine Service and Mercator Ocean International publish the ninth edition of the Copernicus Ocean State Report, which…

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography sits peacefully above the Pacific on most mornings in La Jolla. Its piers span the water, and its laboratories conduct experiments on deep-sea specimens and kelp embryos that most people would never consider. The San Diego Zoo Safari Park, which spans 900 acres of cactus scrub and biodiversity reserve, is located about 35 miles north, beyond the scrublands of Escondido and the dry heat of inland San Diego County. Two esteemed organizations with completely different daily tasks, ecosystems, and areas of focus. They could have been operating on different planets for the majority of their…

Currently, there are instruments bolted to the seabed on the North Atlantic floor, silently monitoring temperature, pressure, and the movement of cold water in the dark. The results of these measurements, which have been made for almost 20 years, are not promising. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which spans a broad band of ocean from the subtropics to the mid-latitudes, has been steadily weakening, according to research recently published by researchers at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School. four distinct monitoring arrays. each one with the same signal. That isn’t sound. It is not a model projection. Scientists are being…

Photographs of the nodules appear unremarkable; they are lumpy, dark, and about the size of a potato, dispersed over a muddy seafloor four miles below the Pacific’s surface. At a beach, no one would give them another glance. However, they constitute one of the world’s most concentrated battery metal deposits down there, in the almost freezing darkness between Hawaii and Mexico. manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper. The materials that end up in electric vehicle batteries, solar infrastructure, consumer electronics. They were referred to as “an EV battery in a rock” by an Australian mining executive who had a salesman’s eye…

A version of this story starts with Jacques Cousteau and a grainy underwater film that was first captured in color, with viewers all over the world gazing at a television screen with a mixture of amazement and discomfort. That was seventy years ago. Since then, the technology has evolved to an almost unrecognizable degree. The amount of the ocean that people have truly seen hasn’t really changed. Over 70% of the earth is submerged under water. Roughly 95% of it—depth included—is still unmapped, unresearched, and basically unknown. In 2026, that figure ought to be embarrassing. It appears to do so…

One of the world’s most disputed seafloor areas is located between Hawaii and Mexico, about 12,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean’s surface. There are no residents. Not many people have witnessed it. However, in the years to come, it might be the scene of a collision between two of the ocean’s most economically important industries; the science supporting this is already published. Three commercially significant Pacific tuna species—bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin—are being pushed eastward by climate change toward warming waters that just so happen to sit directly over the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a 4.5 million square kilometer area where the International…

Standing on the deck of a research ship in the middle of the Atlantic and truly realizing that the water below you drops for miles is a disorienting experience. In addition to being deep, the ocean floor in this region of the world is mostly unexplored. Compared to the seabed between the American coastline and the Azores, a larger portion of the moon’s surface has been mapped. It’s an odd fact to accept. Nevertheless, something appears to be changing following years of inadequate funding and sluggish bureaucratic momentum. The region’s approach to deep-sea research has changed as a result of…