Photo Gallery: Mesophotic Coral Restoration
In spring of 2026, a diverse team of experts collaborated on an expedition to restore mesophotic corals in the Gulf of America.
In the spring of 2026, a mission aboard NOAA Ship Nancy Foster set out to plant propagated mesophotic corals in habitats injured by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Multiple coral samples rest in the “coral torpedo,” ready to be sent to the seafloor for technical divers to outplant. C...
Diver Scott Mau takes a sample from a Swiftia exserta coral on the seafloor. Credit: NOAA/Dave Witting
NOAA Ship Nancy Foster provides the deck space, support vessels, and berthing space to support a robust tech diving miss...
Divers surface with a bright buoy to signal their location to the small boat, which will return them back to NOAA Ship N...
A view from the “coral torpedo” that transported corals from the surface, where NOAA divers Mikey Kent and Jason Nunn ar...
The lab on the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster serves as a staging area for dive gear, and a place to process samples collected b...
A view from the bridge on NOAA Ship Nancy Foster in the Gulf of America. Credit: NOAA/Grant Burdine
A successful technical diving mission takes a full team of divers, medical staff, scientists, data managers, and crew. C...
A CTD (connectivity, temperature, depth) rosette is deployed over the side of NOAA Ship Nancy Foster to collect informat...
The team conducts extensive meetings to plan operations before each dive. Fun fact: The number 30 written on the back of...
A diver takes measurements of a Thesea nivea coral on the seafloor. Credit: NOAA/Dave Witting
A large Muricea pendula coral on the seafloor. Credit: NOAA/Dave Witting
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