Rachel Downey, Southern Ocean Sponges expert, show samples collected during a dive in Erebus & Terror Gulf to the crew members of Arctic Sunrise.

The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise has returned to the Antarctic Peninsula with scientists Susanne Lockhart and Rachel Downey for a series of dives with a submersible to explore the sea floor. Greenpeace is conducting scientific research and documenting the Antarctic’s unique wildlife, to strengthen the proposal to create the largest protected area on the planet, an Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary.