Mapping Palau's Deep Ocean for the First Time | OceanX Expedition

Over 80% of Palau's Exclusive Economic Zone is already protected.

But most of that protection is based on what we know about shallow waters. What happens in the deep ecosystems beneath them, and how those depths contribute to the overall health of Palauan waters, is still largely unknown.

From April 26 to May 28, OceanX conducted a 32-day expedition across international waters and the Palau EEZ, exploring shallow, mesophotic, and deep-sea environments from 2 meters to over 4,000 meters depth. This is one of the first expeditions endorsed by Mission Neptune and carries UN Ocean Decade recognition. Using ROVs, submersibles, CTDs, eDNA sequencing platforms, and acoustic systems, the team investigated seamounts, benthic biodiversity, and megafauna across two expedition legs, building a scientific baseline for ecosystems that have never been systematically documented.

What makes this expedition different is how it was designed: local Palauan scientists working alongside researchers from institutions around the world, combining on-the-ground knowledge of these waters with decades of specialist expertise. The result is a dataset that can inform conservation planning not just in Palau, but in international waters and other countries building their own ocean protection frameworks.

This expedition was made possible through collaboration with the Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC), the Palau National Geospatial Office, the University of Florida, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Minderoo Foundation, OceanCensus, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU APL Theilen Lab), and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).