Wrapping up the cruise and the year: It is the last day of the last research cruise of the R/V Western Flyer for 2019. We have had a busy and exciting four days exploring the depths of Sur Ridge and Davidson Seamount with the ROV Doc Ricketts. We have explored the Octopus Garden, measured the …

Updates from researchers on the R/V Western Flyer: Monday, December 16, 2019 Jim Barry Taking the pulse of the Octopus Garden: We were excited to send the ROV down 3,300 meters (just over two miles!) to the Octopus Garden, a site discovered a couple years ago where thousands of female octopuses nest in warm hydrothermal springs. …

  We dropped lines and headed out into the thick fog at just before 7:00 a.m. on this Friday the 13th. Hopefully the fog isn’t an omen of some sort. The Western Flyer headed for Sur Ridge, a rocky undersea ridge about 65 kilometers (40 miles) southwest of Moss Landing. The swell from a large …