2026 Ecosystem Monitoring Survey in Photos
Join our survey scientists on their adventures at sea through this collection of photographs from the 2026 Ecosystem Monitoring Survey season.
The Ecosystem Monitoring Survey is one of the most comprehensive, ongoing programs tracking the oceanographic conditions and marine resources in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. This back-deck pass, of the scenes they experienced, captures the day-to-day work and occasional adventures of the 2026 survey season.
Spring EcoMon: The science team for this project included a NOAA Teacher at Sea, a volunteer from Roger Williams University, and two partners from the University of Rhode Island. 10 days of mostly calm weather helped our team reach their truncated goal of 87 stations. In addition to our mission objectives, the scientists and crew also experienced a chance sighting of the Chance vehicle, a NOAA Twin Otter plane fly over, great sightings of whales, birds, and plankton, and a coccolithophore bloom (the satellite view is pretty cool!).
The NOAA Ship Pisces heading out of Narragansett Bay to start the spring 2026 Ecosystem Monitoring Survey. This 10-day s...
The science crew of the spring 2026 Ecosystem Monitoring Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
Audy Peoples, chief scientist of the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey, inspecting a sample for pteropods before preserving.
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Amanda Jacobsen, our PM watch chief, tying the end of the 20-cm bongo net. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
Ava Cieplinski, PM watch member, preparing to collect plankton samples from the net during the spring 2026 EcoMon survey...
Zhitao Yu, PM watch member, joyfully washing the 60-cm bongo net on the spring 2026 EcoMon survey. Credit: NOAA Fisherie...
Katey Marancik, AM watch chief, tying the end of a plankton net during the spring 2026 EcoMon survey. Credit: NOAA Fish...
Olivia Robson, AM watch member, displaying a juvenile monkfish collected in a plankton net during the spring 2026 EcoMon...
Amber Lamonte, NOAA Teacher at Sea and AM watch member, deploying a drifter on the shelf edge offshore of Long Island du...
Nick Metheny, protected species observer, observing from the flying bridge of the NOAA Ship Pisces during the spring 202...
Rowan Cirivello, academic collaborator, preparing for a radiometer deployment during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Cred...
Artem Dzjhulai, academic collaborator, deploying the radiometer from the NOAA Ship Pisces during the spring 2026 EcoMon ...
A glass squid from a survey plankton net towed in southern New England waters during the spring 2026 EcoMon survey. Cred...
Larval monkfish plucked from the sieve after a southern New England plankton tow during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. C...
Larval monkfish from the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
It’s a net biter. Juvenile monkfish from the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Katey Marancik
Humpback whale seen off Long Island during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
Humpback whale seen off Long Island during the 2026 Spring EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
Great shearwater from Georges Bank during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
South polar skua seen on Georges Bank during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
A microscope view of pteropods from a sample in the Gulf of Maine during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fis...
Show-and-tell with our NOAA Teacher at Sea during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Katey Marancik
Scientists preparing mission control for the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Katey Marancik
Ocean chemistry at sea by Olivia Robson during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Audy Peoples
Plankton view of a scientist during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/Katey Marancik
A spring 2026 EcoMon Survey sunrise illuminating a new day of plankton tows and hydrographic sampling. Credit: NOAA Fish...
The PM watch chief … watching … for feeding humpback whales during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA Fisherie...
Plankton scientists and Teacher at Sea, observing the horizon (looking for whales) during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey....
Scientists and crew observing humpback whales from the flying bridge during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey. Credit: NOAA ...
A coccolithophore bloom during the spring 2026 EcoMon Survey, caused the normally green waters of the North Atlantic to...
The Chance Marine Technologies M40 uncrewed vessel was observed at night from the deck of the NOAA Ship Pisces during mi...
A NOAA Twin Otter plane flyover was observed from the flying bridge of the NOAA Ship Pisces during mission overlap on th...
The NOAA Ship Pisces taken from the NOAA Twin Otter plane during the spring 2026 EcoMon survey. Credit: NOAA Fisheries/L...
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