Dr. Heather Olins's Deep Sea Biology Class recently had a visit from Nick Pawlenko....

of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Ocean Education & Research (OER). Nick was joined via video by OER's science lead Dr. Scott France of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

They are helping the class remotely participate in an upcoming research expedition in the Gulf of Mexico being carried out by NOAA's Okeanos Explorer. To plan this expedition, a call went out to the scientific community to suggest specific sites of interest to potentially explore on the April expedition.

The class was invited to propose two potential sites to be considered along side sites proposed by scientists. Students worked in groups to examine bathymetric data from the Gulf, and researched previous discoveries at sites nearby to help select their sites. Ultimately, the class chose two locations where we think deep sea corals may be present. In the next few weeks a committee will discuss all of the proposed sites, and if we are lucky enough to have one of ours chosen, it will happen towards the end of April, and will be live streamed online (along with all the other dives of the expedition) for all to watch!