Expedition goal: During this eight-day expedition aboard MBARI’s flagship research vessel David Packard, members of the Biodiversity and Biooptics Team and their collaborators will explore the dazzling diversity of gelatinous animals that live in the water column. By integrating taxonomy, phylogenetics, population genetics, physiology, and biochemistry, the team hopes to gain new insights into how animals are adapted to life in deep midwater environments.

Expedition dates: October 13–20, 2026

Ship: R/V David Packard

Location: Monterey Canyon, Davidson Seamount, offshore Central California 

Research technology: Blue-water scuba, portable 4K camera, uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), midwater trawl, low-light camera, ROV Doc Ricketts, VR camera

Chief scientist: Steven Haddock

Gelatinous animals like ctenophores, jellies, and siphonophores play an important role in ocean ecosystems, but their delicate nature makes them challenging to study. Researchers in MBARI’s Biodiversity and Biooptics Team work with collaborators from around the world to study these delicate drifters using a diverse suite of technologies to understand how organisms have adapted to life in the deep water column, an environment of frigid temperatures, perpetual midnight, crushing pressure, and no physical boundaries. 

Led by Senior Scientist Steven Haddock, this group takes an integrative approach to studying gelatinous plankton, combining several areas of study, including:

• identifying and describing new species (biodiversity and taxonomy)
• disentangling the evolutionary relationships between species (phylogenetics)
• studying how populations of animals are connected and distributed (population genetics)
• investigating how animal physiology, gene expression, and biochemistry change with depth
• studying the detection of light from eyes and other tissues (photosensitivity)
• studying the chemistry and functions of light production (bioluminescence)

The team’s work is revealing previously unknown species, providing clues about the early evolution of animals, and answering fundamental questions about animal physiology.

During this expedition, the team will use R/V David Packard as the command center to deploy technologies that will give researchers a comprehensive picture of marine life from the surface to the abyssal seafloor. 

An aerial drone will scan the ocean’s surface for oceanographic features where jellies will be most abundant. The team will then drive a new portable electric work boat to those areas of interest and conduct blue-water scuba dives to collect animals for further study in the wet lab aboard R/V David Packard. In the evenings, they will deploy a midwater trawl to collect jellies and other zooplankton as they migrate to the surface to feed.

With the support of MBARI’s Marine Operations Team and submersible pilots, the team will deploy MBARI’s remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts to study gelatinous plankton living more than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) underwater. Advanced cameras on the vehicle will allow the team to observe delicate zooplankton in high resolution and document their remarkable displays of bioluminescence. They will use sampling equipment on the vehicle to gently bring animals back to the lab for further study, allowing comparison between surface-dwelling and deep-sea species.

By exploring life at a range of depths—from the surface to 4,000 meters (13,100 feet, or nearly 2.5 miles)—the team can better understand how animals evolve to survive in the cold, dark, and high-pressure conditions of the deep sea.