Charles Fisher

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Super-heated water emerges from a hydrothermal vent in a dark plume

Deep-sea fish use hydrothermal vents to incubate eggs

2/12/18

An international team of researchers, including Penn State biologist Charles Fisher, discovered egg cases of deep-sea fish near hydrothermal vents. The team believes that deep-sea skates use the warm water near the vents to accelerate the typically years-long incubation time of the eggs.

A reef formed by the coral species Lophelia pertusa at 450m below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Biologist investigates lasting ecological impacts of Deepwater Horizon oil spill

7/10/13

Billions of dollars. That's what's at stake for BP as a result of the damage caused to ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Five months after the spill was capped, the federal government estimated the marine animal death toll at 6,104 birds, 609 sea turtles, and 100 mammals, including dolphins. But what of the deep-water corals that provide habitat and reproductive grounds for numerous species of fish, shrimp, and crabs?

A reef formed by the coral species Lophelia pertusa at 450m below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

Award-winning research led in Gulf of Mexico by Penn State biologist

8/30/12

A research project deep in the Gulf of Mexico, led by Penn State University Professor of Biology Charles Fisher, the project's lead scientist, and James Brooks of TDI Brooks International, the project's manager, has been honored with the Excellence in Partnership award by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP), an organization established by the U.S. Congress. The results of the research include new discoveries of coral communities in the deep Gulf of Mexico, new findings on the ecology and population genetics of the deep-water corals and communities, marine archaeological discoveries, and new data on growth rates of corals on oil platforms and shipwrecks. A primary purpose of the work is to gather data that will inform environmental review and decision making for the protection of deep-water corals and other hard-bottom communities in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Photos and more information are online at
http://www.science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2012-news/Fisher8-2012.

photo of dead coral in the sea floor

Deep Impact

4/4/12

The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill had a serious negative impact on deep-sea coral communities more than seven miles from the spill site in the Gulf of Mexico. That's the verdict after a series of underwater investigations led by Penn State Professor of Biology Charles Fisher.

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Research website will take viewers deep into the Gulf of Mexico

12/13/10

Researchers on an expedition in the Gulf of Mexico to view first-hand the possible effects of the oil spill on the sea floor are posting daily reports of their explorations on the Web. Charles Fisher, a biological oceanographer from Penn State, is the chief scientist on this research expedition. The research team's daily updates, photos and videos will be added to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's (WHOI) "Dive and Discover" website, http://divediscover.whoi.edu until Dec. 14. To follow the activities during the expedition, click on the "Expedition 13" link at the Dive and Discover website.

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Hydrothermal-vent expedition educational experience for all students

6/9/09

An international team of scientists led by a Penn State biologist has returned to port this week after completing a research expedition to collect data about the creatures that live under extreme conditions near deep-sea hydrothermal vents. The area the team is studying is among those being explored by deep-sea mining companies. The research will help scientists to evaluate the potential and actual impacts of commercial activities there.

Team led by biology professor receives federal conservation award

5/20/08

A research team led by Charles Fisher, professor of biology at Penn State, has received a Cooperative Conservation Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Fisher's research team was among 14 groups to receive the award, which is one of the Department of the Interior's highest honors. The Cooperative Conservation Award recognizes conservation achievements that involve collaborative activity among a diverse range of entities, such as federal, state, local and tribal governments; private for-profit and nonprofit institutions; other non-governmental entities; and individuals.

Featured Site: Venture Deep Ocean

6/8/05

Biology professor Charles Fisher will spend most of June far from land, leading a research expedition to the Lau Basin between Tonga and Fiji in the South Pacific. The three-week cruise aboard the research vessel Melville is the latest in a series funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Featured Site: Venture Deep Ocean

4/6/05

Last May, Ridge 2000—a research coalition focused on mid-ocean ridges and tectonics—launched the first of five ambitious missions to explore the South Pacific ocean floor. Their specific destination? The Lau Basin, an underwater terrain "chock-full of underwater volcanoes and vents, and a multitude of exotic life-forms."

Going Deep

1/1/03

At 3:00, seven hours behind schedule, Atlantis's horn sounded and the ship pulled away from the docks, starting her day-and-a-half journey south to the East Pacific Rise. The hillsides of Manzanillo, Mexico, tightly packed with houses painted bright shades of green and yellow, slowly disappeared into the distance—our last look at land for 23 days.

Notes from the Deep

12/31/01

Life is both stranger and hardier than we know. Until quite recently,
scientists thought the realm of deep ocean, far from the Sun's sustaining
rays, was a cold, dark wasteland. Then, in 1977, researchers investigating
hydrothermal vents — hot springs on the ocean floor — discovered communities thriving in total darkness. Specialized bacteria in these communities turn chemicals seeping from the vents into food much like plants on land make energy from sunlight. These bacteria are the base of the food chain for life at the vents.

Astrobiology: The Search for Life in the Universe

1/1/01

Once it was asked in whispers, or with winks. The timid among us, though undeniably curious, feared raised eyebrows. Jokes about little green men. Who could take such a question seriously, yank it from the misty realms of science fiction and drop it under the searchlight of science? Well, our national space agency, for one. What's more, NASA seems pretty confident these days about the answer: Astrobiology, as defined on an official agency Web site, is "the study of the living universe."

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

3/1/95

Hundreds of meters beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico there is a lake.

"This brine pool is so dense," says biologist Chuck Fisher, "that when you come down onto it in a submarine, you bump. You float. Little ripples spread out. It's a very surreal experience."

Fisher is an expert on symbiosis, the state in which two life forms are fully intertwined. What draws him down to the briny pool are the mussel beds on its edges — mussels that have methane-eating bacteria packing their gills "like eggs in an Easter basket."