NOAA's Undersea Research Program teamed up with other research organizations to study how predators affect herring abundance in Alaska. Understanding how predation affects a commercially and ecologically important species in coastal communities throughout Alaska is critical for developing ecosystem-based management approaches for herring populations. (more info)

In an effort to better understand gas hydrates and their makeup, scientists and engineers from the Center for Hydrate Research at the Colorado School of Mines and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have for the first time obtained data from a Raman spectrometer deployed in the deep sea. With support from NOAA's Underseas Research Program and MBARI, scientists are exploring the composition and fate of gas hydrates in their natural environment using a modified bench-top Raman spectrometer at Hydrate Ridge (off the Oregon coast) and at Barkley Canyon (off Vancouver Island, British Columbia). This research has provided new insights into the stability, structure, composition and heterogeneity of these energy-rich, and potentially unstable methane hydrate deposits found in the deep sea. (more info)

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