For each month in 2021, we will post a wallpaper calendar for you to download to give your desktop a fresh look. At the end of each month, the image will be retired to the wallpaper collection without the calendar.
Instructions on how to make a picture your computer's wallpaper.
This sea spider, or pycnogonid, was seen crawling up a colony of bamboo coral overgrown by yellow zoanthids at a depth of 2,623 meters (8,605 feet) on Congress Seamount (which lies east of Bermuda) during the 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones: New England and Corner Rise Seamounts expedition. Image courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones.
NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners embarked on the Mapping Deepwater Areas off the Southeast U.S. in Support of the Extended Continental Shelf Project on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer.
Former President Richard Nixon and Congress established the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ushering in a new era of ocean exploration.
The results of the first Census of Marine Life were reported following a 10-year international effort (to which NOAA Ocean Exploration contributed) undertaken to assess the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the global ocean.
NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners embarked on the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-Sea Exploration mapping expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as part of the Atlantic Seafloor Partnership for Integrated Research and Exploration (ASPIRE) campaign.
NOAA established Lake Huron’s Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the first national marine sanctuary in the Great Lakes.
NOAA, the Global Foundation for Ocean Exploration, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management embarked on the Surveying Deep-Sea Corals, Sponges, and Fish Habitat off the West Coast expedition aboard NOAA Ship Reuben Lasker. This expedition along the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts was part of the Expanding Pacific Research and Exploration of Submerged Systems (EXPRESS) initiative.
The Department of Commerce released “Discovering Earth’s Final Frontier: A U.S. Strategy for Ocean Exploration” that was developed at the request of former President Bill Clinton by a panel of leading ocean explorers, scientists, and educators. NOAA Ocean Exploration was established in response to the recommendations and challenges set forth in this report.
The interagency U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved the names of three seamounts honoring contributions to science made by NOAA Ocean Exploration and its partners during the Campaign to Address Pacific monument Science, Technology, and Ocean NEeds (CAPSTONE).
NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners embarked on a transit on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer from Hawaii to the West Coast, mapping the seafloor and towing a continuous plankton recorder and a manta net to collect debris, plastic particles, and plankton.
NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners embarked on Océano Profundo 2018: Exploring Deep-Sea Habitats off Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, a remotely operated vehicle and mapping expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer.
NOAA completed the expansion of Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary by adding five additional discrete geographical areas to the sanctuary and changed the sanctuary's name to National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa.
NOAA Ocean Exploration and partners embarked on the 2019 Southeastern U.S. Deep-Sea Exploration remotely operated vehicle and mapping expedition on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer as part of the Atlantic Seafloor Partnership for Integrated Research and Exploration (ASPIRE) campaign.
Interested in learning more? Browse our expeditions by year and read about NOAA's history of ocean exploration, and, throughout the year, follow the stories Celebrating 20 Years of NOAA Ocean Exploration.