Monterey Canyon deep-sea research

From left, Dana Michels, Shana Goffredi, Lonny Lundsten and Heidi Aronson prepare bait. The scientists will monitor which creatures show up to eat.

Katherine Dawson and Victoria Orphan take a quiet moment as the ship heads to Monterey Canyon, the deepest underwater canyon along North America’s west coast.

The rover has robotic arms and an array of boxes and canisters to hold whatever it finds.

A pilot uses the rover’s robotic arm to retrieve seafloor sediment that will be brought back to Victoria Orphan’s lab for analysis.

Caltech geobiologist Victoria Orphan watches as the rover’s robotic arm presses a sediment sampler into the ocean floor.

Victoria Orphan watches through a window as the rover is brought back inside the ship.

Clockwise, Victoria Orphan, Caltech graduate student Sujung Lim, postdoctoral scholar Hang “Hank” Yu and Occidental College biologist Shana Goffredi start pulling the sediment samples out for analysis.

Two teams get to work on either side of the counter. On the left, Katherine Dawson, left, Hang “Hank” Yu and Victoria Orphan process sediments to search for microbes. On the right, from left to right, Heidi Aronson, Dana Michels, Corinna Breusing and Shana Goffredi process deep-sea clams as Lonny Londsten looks for Osedax worms hidden in whale bone.

Sujung Lim and Victoria Orphan start slicing a sediment core.

Katherine Dawson, left, and Victoria Orphan carefully handle another core sample.

Victoria Orphan takes a sniff of sediment, searching for telltale scents. Katherine Dawson and Caltech graduate student Sean Mullin work in the background.

Shana Goffredi, left, and Heidi Aronson, right, watch Lonny Lundsten use tweezers to hunt for worms in a whale bone. In the background, Dana Michels, left, and Corinna Breusing open clams to take samples.

Shana Goffredi and Lonny Lundsten pick a whale bone apart looking for fragile Osedax worms.

When performing delicate science on a swaying ship, wide stances are a must.

Recent Occidental College graduates Heidi Aronson and Dana Michels admire the sunset after a day’s work.