The largest habitat on Earth is the least well explored. Its inhabitants are often wonderfully bizarre, and have a wide variety of fascinating adaptations to the particular characteristics of their various habitats. This course will include the history of deep sea exploration, technologies used to study the deep, depth zonation, energy, diversity, adaptations, the ecology of major habitats, and anthropogenic threats such as deep sea fisheries, mining, and global climate change. In this course, you will build a basic understanding of what we know (and don’t know), about the biodiversity of deep sea ecosystems, familiarity with methods used in the field, experience critiquing and discussing scientific papers, and (schedules permitting) exposure to (and interaction with) an ongoing research expedition!