This expedition is supported by a grant from the Biological Oceanography Program of the National Science Foundation entitled, “Marine Invertebrate Larvae as grazers in the midwater microbial loop.” The project is four years long and includes three research cruises, two in the Bahamas and one (this year) at methane seeps in the Gulf of Mexico.The project is a collaboration among three scientists at the University of Oregon (Craig Young, Michelle Wood, Richard Emlet) and one scientist at Illinois Wesleyan University (Will Jaeckle).