Gizmodo, on it’s Indefinitely Wild Blog has featured a Californian Academy of Sciences team, including Wetpixel Moderator Luis Rocha, along with Elliot Jessup, Bart Shepherd and Hudson Pinheiro, as they use submersibles, 4K imaging and rebreathers to gather specimens at 450 feet (135m). The article focuses on how the team are using hight tech diving and imaging equipment as study tools. The approach obviously pays dividends, the article mentions them as “discovering new species at rates as high as 14 per hour”.

The article focuses on dives undertaken as a part of the Curaço Deep Reef Expedition, in this instance collecting lionfish for stomach-content analysis and DNA testing. The aim is to identify which native species the lionfish are predating, and whether deep water lionfish are part of, or separate from, mecshallow-water populations.

(Image by Bart Shepherd, video by Elliot Jessup)