Deep Sea Biology

In a public letter, 15 marine scientists and legal scholars warned that mining may destroy deep-sea habitats, drive species extinct, and introduce vibrations, noises, chemicals, and clouds of sediment into the ecosystem. About 1,000 meters below the ocean’s surface, the last traces of light from Deep Sea the sun and moon disappear into inky black. Among the ocean’s strongest divers, sperm whales and leatherback sea turtles can swim to the threshold, but rarely do they enter these lightless depths. This is the “midnight zone,” and entering it is like plunging into another planet. In fact, considerable amounts of litter can now be found in the deep sea.

Dive deeper

As a result, scientists working in the deep sea constantly encounter new species and other surprises. For example, in February 2021 an AWI team discovered the world’s largest fish breeding colony in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea. Images taken with a camera system towed by the research icebreaker Polarstern captured countless nests of the ice fish species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seafloor, at depths from 420 to 535 metres. There, an estimated 60 million nests are spread across 240 square kilometres, an area the size of 36,000 football fields.
This project utilizes the taxonomic expertise of more than a dozen Smithsonian scientists and employs modern molecular tools and digital photography and videography to fully document species and genetic diversity on deep reefs. But in fact, producing light in the deep is the norm rather than the exception. Some creatures produce their own light to snag a meal or find a mate in a process called bioluminescence. The extreme saltiness causes significantly denser water than the average ocean water and, like water and air, the two do not mix. The salt difference is so definitive that sitting above the brine lake, you can visibly see the lake’s surface—even waves when the lake is disturbed.

The Giant Isopod

That has since become a commonly used method for investigating life and processes in the bottom-most ocean. For this purpose, the AWI relies on PAUL and his “little sister” SARI – two autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that can be programmed for entire missions. They are deployed from a research vessel, scan a predetermined route independently, taking readings at regular intervals, and then surface again at fixed coordinates for retrieval. Depending on the specific research goals, the AUVs can operate at various depths and be fitted with a broad range of instruments.

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition uses science to help protect and preserve the deep sea.

• Not every anglerfish species uses this strategy, and scientists still debate why it evolved in some but not others.
• For example, there are only roughly half as many nematodes in the deep-sea sediment as in the past.
• In addition, instruments moored to the ocean floor operate year-round, while autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can now be deployed there for winter surveys.
• By valuing and safeguarding the deep ocean, we ensure a healthier planet and the preservation of life’s strangest, most fascinating forms for generations to come.
• If the worms feel threatened, they can retract their red, feather-like gills inside the protective white tubes surrounding their bodies.
• The same minerals found in the deep-sea are used for electric car batteries, wind turbine generators, and solar panels.

According to UN regulations (UNGA Res 61/105), deep-sea fisheries are meant to avoid what is known as ‘Significant Adverse Impacts’ upon vulnerable marine ecosystems. To reach the nodules, deep-sea mining companies are testing robotic technologies. The Canadian-based “The Metals Company” (TMC) has developed a process in which a vehicle, about the size of a bus, would journey underwater, grab the nodules, and send them up a miles-long vertical tube to a ship waiting on the surface.

More in Ocean

• It also has a long whip-like tail that it uses for movement and for communication via bioluminescence.
• Like everything about deep-sea mining, the full impact remains a mystery.
• However, they differ from sharks in having a hidden gills covered by an operculum or gill cover, and non-replaceable rodent-like tooth plates.
• Yet even in this hostile environment, there are survivors that use special strategies to cope.
• Larvae that arrive later or land on another worm, become males, but never really grow beyond the larval form.
• These include manganese nodules, which can be found on the ocean floor at a depth of more than 4,000 metres, especially in the Pacific.

The Deep Reef Observation Project (DROP) is a Smithsonian research program launched to explore marine life and monitor changes on deep reefs in the southern Caribbean. Scientists turn to submarines to explore at depths too great for SCUBA gear. The Curasub is a 5-person manned submersible capable of descending to 1,000 feet. The state-of-the-art sub is equipped with hydraulic collecting arms that allow for the collection of marine life and the deployment of long-term monitoring devices on the deep reef.

Supports Marine Biodiversity

They do so by taking great gulps of air through their blow holes when they’re at the surface. This air moves into the lungs, but as the whale dives deeper the pressure forces air into special sinuses filled with fatty oils. The air mixes up with these oils making an emulsion, so that it cannot be crushed. Many theories on the purpose of bioluminescence have been put forward, but it is still not fully understood.

They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in their polyps from passing currents. The bathypelagic is between 3,300 and 13,100 feet (1,000 and 4,000 m) beneath the ocean surface. It is an area void of light (called aphotic) and at 39 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius), it is very cold. Creatures in this zone must live with minimal food, so many have slow metabolisms. The black hagfish, viperfish, anglerfish, and sleeper shark are common fish that call this zone home.