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Deep-Sea Mining: A New Frontier of Ocean Disturbance

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What is it? The deep-sea has long been susceptible to human-caused disturbances of various identities, such as: plastic pollution, climate change, oil exploitation, and overfishing. Unfortunately, a different disturbance type is on the horizon named Deep-Sea Mining . These operations are designed to extract Manganese nodules  from the seabed, which are generally located within 4,000 – 6,000 meters depth. These nodules contain valuable minerals that are necessary for the development of lithium-ion batteries, such as: cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Historically, cobalt has been mined from the Republic of Congo where greater than 70% of the “mineable” cobalt is believed to be. However, current cobalt mining operations are surrounded by human rights issues and located in an unstable geopolitical climate . The current demand for nickel is greater than the supply, as pointed out by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk . In order to mine the deep sea in the high seas, approval must be granted by the In...
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Diel Vertical Migration: The Most Impressive Animal Migration on Earth

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Today I’ll be discussing the process that got me hooked on the ecology of the open ocean, diel vertical migration (shortened as DVM)! DVM is the process of deep-pelagic (deeper than 200 meters [1 meter = ~3 feet]) animals ascending several hundreds of meters in the water column at night in search of food under the guise of the dark night sky. Once daylight approaches, these animals descend back into the dark, deep ocean where they are less likely to be eaten. This process occurs everywhere in the open ocean every single day. Many of the animals that practice DVM (like the lanternfish below) are no larger than the palm of your hand! It’s not just about fishes. Squids, zooplankton, siphonophores ,  pyrosomes , and many others practice DVM as well. This means that within one 24-hour cycle, migrating animals experience water temperatures greater than 10 degrees Celsius (> 20 degrees Fahrenheit) and pressure differences amounting to dozens of atmospheres of pressure. Physiologically...
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Colors in the Open Ocean: Hide and Seek without Structure

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If you asked an elementary school student to draw an oceanscape, they would likely draw a vibrant coral reef ecosystem, full of colorful corals and shiny fishes. Although many coral reef ecosystems are losing this color  and most reef ecosystems do not actually look like the reef structures in aquaria, coastal seas are typically characterized by this luscious vibe. On the contrary, the open ocean is more monotone and so are the organisms within it. Reef vs. Pelagic Ocean. Almost all animals that live in the open ocean have a dark dorsal (top) side and light ventral (bottom) side, a characteristic called countershading . Consider the below image of an Atlantic bluefin tuna ( Thunnus thynnus ). The dorsal side is a dark blue and the ventral side is white. The main purpose of this is to avoid predation in a 3-dimensional environment (many pelagic organisms in lakes have this as well). Predators hunting from below the tuna will have to look up at a light backdrop where the white ven...
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Hello World!

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Hello and welcome to " High Seas Biology ", a blog about the numerous wonders of the open ocean. My name is Matt Woodstock and I am currently a PhD Candidate at Florida International University in the Fisheries and Ecosystem Assessment Lab . I study the ecology of open-ocean systems with a particular focus on the food web interactions between deep-sea organisms and federally protected species (ex. tunas, billfishes, mammals, seabirds, sea turtles). The inspiration to begin this blog originates from an article by famed deep-sea biologist Alan Jamieson and others ( 2020 ), where the authors discuss the challenges associated with teaching deep-sea biology and convincing people to care about conserving an ecosystem that is " out of sight, out of mind ". Many have likely seen the episode of " Our Planet " entitled " The High Seas ", which was narrated by Sir David Attenborough, but 49 minutes of airtime does not do this region justice. My overarching...
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Location: Miami, FL, USA
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