Your Daily Ocean Science Briefing

Deep-Sea Exploration Advances, Carbon Removal Breakthrough, and Critical Monitoring Cuts

• NOAA's Okeanos Explorer is conducting a 29-day expedition in American Samoa, mapping deep waters and exploring abyssal plains, seamounts, and deep-sea coral communities. This mission assesses marine critical minerals and provides first detailed video observations of abyssal plain habitats, which surprisingly cover 70% of Earth's seafloor.

  Oceanrising CoAstrobiologyNoaa Gov

• Engineered marine bacteria, developed by a Wyss Institute-led team, now significantly accelerate natural bioweathering, a process typically regulating atmospheric CO2 over hundreds of thousands of years. This breakthrough offers an industrial-scale solution for decarbonizing the atmosphere by pulling carbon into seawater.

  Harvard EduYoutubeKpbs

• UPDATE: Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Biogeochemical-ARGO float program, vital for monitoring ocean health, faces potential loss due to federal funding expiration in October 2026. Trump administration budget cuts reportedly hinder NOAA's ability to cover costs, jeopardizing over a decade of critical ocean data.

  YoutubeKpbs