Question: While searching the aquatic life, did you discover some things that shocked you?

Hi ella!
thanks for the question!
well, I am a physicist, and in my job I am more focused on currents and waves in the Ocean, than on aquatic life.
Usually, my biologist colleagues are the one searching for that. However, what I really like of my field, Oceanography, is that we have a lot of collaboration with colleagues from different disciplines, like biologists, geologists, chemists, and so we look at the Ocean from different perspectives, and learn from different fields how everything is connected: waves, fishes, plankton distribution, algi, etc…
So, back to your question, I think the most shocking thing I saw at sea is how much life there is in the deep Ocean! It’ s amazing!
During my last cruise we lowered a high definition camera nearby the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, at about 2400 m. Is so dark there, no light can penetrate so far, so we had also to lower some very strong light with our camera.
I was expecting a desert (no light, usually means no life), but there is so much life down there! Anemones, sea-cucumbers (a sort of sea-worms that eat sediments on the bottom floor), corals, but also some big, eels-looking fish, and sooooo many curious shrimps, attracted by our light!
I must say I have been really surprise about this alive landscape.