Header image for expedition: Lophelia II 2010: Oil Seeps and Deep Reefs

Mission Overview

This was the fourth cruise in a four-year project to discover and characterize deep-water coral communities in the Gulf of Mexico, to conduct a variety of experiments and analyses that will help us to predict where other communities will be found, and to understand why we find them where we do.

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Video Highlights

Conger Eel

A carbonate rock outcropping with various corals and sponges on it. The fish that is featured is called Hoplostethus—a relative of the orange roughy. Further in the clip, a conger eel grabs one of the Hoplostethus.

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Sixgill Shark

Video footage of a sixgill shark, a species of deep water shark fairly common in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Rock Outcropping

This large rock outcropping is covered with gorgonian and scleractinian corals, including Lophelia, and home to a galatheid crab.

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