In August 2023, the Hamdan Lab embarked on an expedition to explore shipwrecks in the Keathley Canyon lease area. The primary goals were to investigate previously identified sonar targets, determine if they were shipwrecks, and take sediment samples to investigate the microbial communities surrounding the shipwrecks. Five sonar targets were investigated and determined not to be shipwrecks. However, the nearby Monterrey Shipwrecks, a cluster of 3 historic shipwrecks, provided the opportunity to take sediment samples and investigate the microbial community of these uniquely positioned shipwrecks. Please see this link for the full NOAA Ocean Exploration website coverage of the expedition or click the project title under “Research Interests” in the Navigation bar and read the feature from the NOAA website to learn more about the expedition. Click the links throughout the feature to learn more about microbes and shipwrecks! Interested in learning more about the interdisciplinary field of shipwreck ecology? See this recent paper in BioScience that Dr. Hamdan contributed to.