Research at sea has been paralyzed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In articles published in The Washington Post and Vice, GSO assistant professor Roxanne Beinart discusses her cancelled deep sea expedition. Beinart spent the last three years working to secure a ship and a pair of underwater robots to study the biology of deep sea animals living at hydrothermal events near the Tongan islands in the southwestern Pacific, in what would have been her lab’s first big cruise.

The team shipped all of their supplies to Fiji earlier this month, only to learn that the expedition was being canceled “pretty much right after,” Beinart said.

“The impact of this cancellation on our work feels a little greater than it might otherwise, since this is a critical time in our careers,” Beinart said.

Read the story in The Washington Post and Vice.