A team of researchers aboard the EV Nautilus, a research and exploration vessel, are chipping away at the sea’s mysteries by exploring the Mariana region – which holds some of the oldest seafloor on the planet.
Jacqueline Ratliff from Baltimore, Ohio is among them. The recent Montana State University graduate was selected as a video systems intern for the small, nonprofit mission.
Having grown up on a farm in landlocked Fairfield County, she said she had hardly ever spent much time on water before heading out on the expedition.
“I’ve been on a fishing boat on the Great Lakes and that’s about it,” she said. “I just want to kind of show people that you can be from a farm town in the middle of nowhere corn field and you can still get out in the Pacific Ocean.”
The Nautilus’ mission
The Ocean Exploration Trust has been spearheading deep sea discovery missions for nearly two decades. The latest expedition will explore deep sea habitats in the Central and Western Pacific – one of the most volcanically active regions.
Scientists aboard the 2026 mission will spend the 28-day voyage using sonar technology and remotely operated vehicles to discover more about seafloor that’s over 167 million years old.
“You’re literally talking about how things formed the earth and how things continue to keep forming on the earth,” she said. “Finding new creatures or learning more and more about them will help us learn more about their history and how things evolve over time.”
Discoveries so far
Even though the expedition has only just begun, Ratliff said she’s already seen a wide range of wildlife, from rare and strange looking purple acorn worms to cusk eels, the deepest-dwelling vertebrates in the ocean.
Ratliff said part of what has made the expedition exciting is having no idea of what to expect more than 12,000 feet below the waves.
“It's unknown,” she said. “The whole point of it is exploring the unknown and getting to see creatures and geological formations and things that no one's ever seen before.”
Once she’s back on dry land, Ratliff said she hopes to continue capturing elusive environments as a wildlife documentarian.
Ocean-minded Ohioans can keep tabs on the exploration vessel’s journey through a 24/7 livestream at NautilusLive.org.
