Images

Our coasts, the most familiar part of the ocean are the gateway to the larger deeper ocean world. USGS studies processes and hazards in the coastal zone and how they affect people, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Cayla Morningstar (USGS) and Howard Jelks (USGS) show off a walking catfish, Clarias batrachus, during the March 2022 Fish Slam. Photo credit USGS

This photo, taken by teenager Aidan Ford in 2021 of a Ringed Map Turtle near Covington, Louisiana, led to the conformation of a second, previously-unknown population of the species. (Photo courtesy of Aidan Ford). 

A map showing North America's tropical-to-temperate transition zone. Red, orange, and yellow depict the more tropical zones, and blues depict the more temperate zones, based on to the coldest recorded temperature for each area between 1980 and 2009.

 Winter temperature extremes control the distributions of subtropical fishes. Common snook (Centropomus undecimalis), aggregate at a spring in northern Florida during winter. Snook are warm saltwater game fish, common in Florida, that have been moving further northward as extreme cold spells become less frequent and less intense.

Pacific Halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis). Also known as Halibut or Alaskan Halibut. It is the largest flatfish species. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

Pacific Hake or Pacific Whiting (Merluccius productus). Ray-finned fish species found off the U.S. and Canada western coasts. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

Shortspine Thornyhead (Sebastolobus alascanus). Also known as rockfish. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

Sablefish or Black Cod (Anoplopoma fimbria). A deep-sea fish species native to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

Walleye or Alaska Pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus). A target species for one o fhte world's largest fisheries. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

Pacific Cod (Gadus macrocephalus). Also known as Cod, Alaska Cod, Gray Cod, and True Cod. Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries. 

To help study the biodiversity present in the deep sea, scientists collect sediment cores. These cores are about a foot long and provide a vertical profile of deep-sea sediment, or mud.

Reported lionfish sightings from 1985 - January 8, 2020

Data Source: U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database

ROV SuBastian’s manipulator jaw stabilizes GEOMAR’s glowing bubble box that is capturing high-resolution images of methane bubbles rising from the seafloor.

 Two UNC mini landers, surrounded by Sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria) and pink sea urchins, incubate seawater in situ to enable calculations of methane oxidation rates.

Red plumes burst out from the tops of these chemosynthetic tubeworms, capturing hydrogen sulfide and oxygen from the surrounding water to feed their bacterial endosymbionts. The tubeworm tubes provide a habitat for several benthic animals, including the pale pink branching octocorals seen here

A female Kemp's ridley sea turtle, named Finley, shows off the popoff ADL (orange) and satellite tag (blue).

Mangrove forest in Pohnpei, Micronesia.

The USGS and partners are studying how mangrove forests in the Federated States of Micronesia may respond to sea-level rise over the coming century. Their projections will help Micronesian communities plan for the future.

Two red sea urchins (Mesocentrotus franciscanus) sit on the deck of the R/V Falkor. These sea urchins were collected during the #HuntingBubbles research cruise led by the USGS and Schmidt Ocean Institute, which focused on exploring and understanding methane seeps and the communities that depend on them along the Cascadia Margin.

After Hurricane Michael obliterated Fish Inn, the sea turtle research team's field station, team members salvaged some of the building's floor tiles and made this sea turtle mosaic, which they plan to eventually install in a new field station.

Source: USGS National Wetlands Research Center. Photographer: Brad M. Glorioso. St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Necturus beyeri - Gulf Coast Waterdog