Free Diving in the Azores With Mysterious Devil Rays | On Mission

📍Azores, Portugal

On our latest expedition, OceanXplorer set out to explore underwater mountains called seamounts, with researchers from the University of the Azores.

The seamounts are oases of life in the vast, open ocean. In contrast to the the open waters surrounding them, where there’s not much in the way of food or shelter to support marine life, the seamounts are biodiversity hotspots. As ocean currents swirl around the base of the seamount, cold, nutrient-dense waters from the deep rise up the water column. This makes these seamounts a vital habitats for sharks, whales, rays and deep-sea corals and sponges. As important as they are, these complex ecosystems are relatively unexplored. So we set out to shed light on the life of the seamounts, from the deep sea to the surface.

This is a glimpse into how we do this exploration—we went free diving with devil rays, searched for hammerhead sharks and whale sharks, and explored the deep sea with our submersibles. All of the data from this expedition will help develop conservation measures to protect this critical habitat.

Keep an eye on our channel for more science stories from the Azores!

Thanks to our science partners at the Okeanos Institute at the University of the Azores. Find out more about their work by following them: