(Click to enlarge) Copepod: This bizarre copepod has been found in deep water from the Angola Basin, to the southeastern Atlantic, to the central Pacific, puzzling scientists as to why they never before detected it. Ceratonotus steiningeri, Jan Michels.

With fanfare that even snared some attention outside scientific circles, the 10-year Census of Marine Life came to a conclusion Oct. 1. The headlines and self-congratulation were deserved: our “ocean planet” is predominantly covered with salt water, and the Census had strength in numbers: 2,700 scientists from more than 80 nations spent $650 million exploring life in salt water. Working in 25 groups, the scientists sifted and collated old data and performed new studies on 540 field expeditions.

(From The Why Files) — The Census also crafted the ground-breaking Ocean Biogeographic Information System. This public database contains 30 million records on more than 100,000 marine species, derived from new studies and about 800 existing databases that were harmonized for easy digital access (or so we’re told; we confess we’ve not looked up our favorite lobster in the database).

The effort was monumental, but necessary, considering that roughly 71 percent of our planet is covered by ocean. For reasons of remoteness, expense, logistics and physics, ocean science is difficult and expensive, and as a result, we know a lot less about life in the oceans than on land.

And even on land, scientists cannot agree on the total number of multicellular species, let alone count the bacteria and other one-celled critters.

The effort to explore salty sections of the planet that began in 2000 has already boosted the number of known marine species from 230,000 to 250,000. About 5,000 more candidate species await analysis in jars and freezers around the world.

» Click here to view the complete story.

(Click to enlarge) The kākā lure was used by Native Hawaiians to target deep-reef demersal snappers and groupers. The deep reef lures were known to have lines up to 200 meters in length. (Credit: CoML)

Experts convene Nov. 18-20, Dublin, Ireland for Oceans Past III Conference

(eurekalert.org) – Human life on the Planet Earth depends on its oceans. Since 1990, the output of fisheries has stagnated below 100 million tonnes per year in spite of the massive investment in high-tech vessels and gear, and the opening up of distant and deep waters in the Southern Hemisphere. The Earth’s oceans simply will not yield more. Marine habitats are under severe pressure from exploitation, the torment of offshore structures, and nutrient run-offs from land use. But what is the scale of change? What used to be in the sea before humans began impacting on marine ecosystems and habitats?

How historical research can inform us of the scale of human impact through time will be a focus of discussion at a major conference 18-20 November in Dublin, Ireland. Oceans Past III is the third in a series of organized conferences as part of the Census of Marine Life’s History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project. HMAP provides baselines of marine life abundance and species distribution during past periods, against which present stocks can be compared.

(Click to enlarge) When selling herring in 18th century Holland meticulous bookkeeping was as important for the fishermen as their offshore skills. (Credit: Het debiteren en Verkopen van de Haringh, 1705. Collection Visserijmuseum Vlaardings Museum, inv. No. P0208)

Researchers in natural sciences and humanities from around the world, 48 in all, are expected to participate in the conference and just a touch of the results that will be presented are described here:

Poul Holm, the chair of HMAP, explains: “Historical research informs us of how much mankind depended on ocean resources for economic, social, and cultural needs. And we need this knowledge to manage life in the oceans wisely. Fortunately, only a few species have gone extinct. The oceans are wide and deep, and many species may rebuild their own stocks if we let them. Knowing what used to live in the sea, therefore, informs us about what might again live there if we allow the populations to grow.”

Turtles and Sharks, Oaxaca, Mexico

The global demand for turtle leather in the second half of the twentieth century led to a rapid depletion of Olive Ridley sea turtle stocks in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. The Mexican federal government banned all sea turtle captures in 1990. This, coupled with previous conservation measures during the fishery years, led to a speedy recovery of sea turtle populations. As part of the fishery conservation efforts, eggs from slaughtered females were incubated, and the resulting hatchlings were released into the sea. The Olive Ridley takes 12-15 years to reach reproductive age, so the recovery time coincides with the maturation time of the hatchlings released a generation earlier. Today, the population of Olive Ridley turtles on the coast of Oaxaca has recovered and continues to grow. Yet, due to an increase in demand for shark fins in East Asian markets, shark fishing quickly replaced turtle captures as an important source of income. And history soon repeated itself, as the shark populations rapidly declined. Michelle María Early Capistrán who conducted the research says, “The turtles are out of danger, but their safety was achieved at the expense of the sharks.” The fishing efforts for both sharks and turtles in the region grew as a result of growing demands from a global market. This is a clear example of how changes in global and local economic priorities can have a direct impact on marine animal populations, and how marine animal conservation is, at its very root, a political and economic problem.

Shark Fins and Turtle Leather: Historic Marine Animal Exploitation on Mexico’s Southern Pacific Coast. By: Michelle María Early Capistrán.

Sharks, Northern Adriatic Sea

In Chioggia’s fish market, in the Northern Adriatic Sea, elasmobranch landing greatly declined in the last 50 years. Elasmobranchs are sharks, skates and rays, whose bodies have a cartilage structure instead of a skeleton, and are among the most vulnerable species of the oceans. Their populations are on a worldwide decline. Thirteen species are currently landed, but one shark, the common smooth-hound: Mustelus mustelus, represents more than 60% of the total elasmobranch landing. Researchers develop models by using historical and present data to predict population trends under different management scenarios. These models predict that without proper management, the common smooth-hound population will decrease by approximately 80% in the next 50 years. Considering the elasmobranch’s high survival rates when released at sea after being caught, the models demonstrate that protection of juveniles proved to work far better than just reducing the fishing effort. The combination of historical and present data and modeling makes this management scenario realistic and feasible.

Which future for elasmobranch in the Northern Adriatic Sea? An answer integrating historical data and

predictive models. By: Yuri Artioli, Eleonora Visentin, Alberto Barausse, Carlotta Mazzoldi.

Coral Reef, Hawaii

(Click to enlarge) This image shows sperm whales caught in the late 1970s in a coastal village in Bohol. (Credit: CoML)

Coral reef ecosystems are among the most diverse coastal ecosystems in the world. Researchers have reconstructed coral reef ecosystem conditions over the past 700 years, in the Hawaiian archipelago by integrating archaeological data, anecdotal and ethnographic information, and modern ecological, and fisheries data on marine species. The researchers discovered that humans, in at least two cases, played a positive role in the recovery of coral reefs. Prior to western contact, Native Hawaiian societies developed large-scale aquaculture systems and implemented effective management practices that sustained communities and coral reef ecosystems in the main Hawaiian Islands. After western contact the remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands have benefited from over a century of conservation and ecosystem protections, including the recent designation of this region as the fully protected Papahānaumokuākea marine national monument. The results challenge conventional assumptions and reported findings that human impacts to ecosystems are cumulative and lead only to a long-term path of environmental decline. In contrast, recovery periods reveal that human societies have interacted sustainably with coral reef environments over long time periods, and that degraded ecosystems may still retain the adaptive capacity to be resilient to human impacts. Understanding environmental challenges of the past provides promise for contemporary efforts to manage ecosystems and societies toward social-ecological sustainability.

Oceans Past III Conference, 2010

International scientists from two dozen countries will travel to Dublin for the third Oceans Past conference (www.hmapcoml.org/oceanspast) hosted by Trinity College, 18-20 November, where they will share additional surprises such as these:

• Dutch 17th and 18th century fishing skippers were among the smartest groups of people in all of early Modern Europe. During the later half of the 18th century, skippers from Schiedam were at the top of a list based on average skills in logic and reasoning for close to 40 groups of people from various branches of society in Western Europe. The skills needed to fish have been highly appreciated for centuries, and the Dutch herring fishermen, who out-performed other countries’ fishermen, certainly profited from their keen abilities to navigate, count and keep books. Out at sea, they were supermen gathering the silver darlings of the North Sea.
• The world of fantasy and myth has dominated all zoological representations from the medieval era to the centuries of the great explorations. Inspired by the past, nature and species are now described and reinvented in all their totemic power by the art project Fishars.
• In some coastal communities in the Philippines fishing practices were guided by beliefs of sea spirits, often accompanied by elaborate ceremonies. As societies are transformed by socio-economic and cultural factors, beliefs are being lost and perceptions changing that ultimately will have bearing on how well efforts to conserve or manage marine animal populations will succeed.

Oceans Past III Conference Scope

The first decade of international, multi-disciplinary “History of Marine Animal Populations” (HMAP) research program culminates in 2010. At this juncture, it is appropriate to reflect on the project’s major achievements, to look ahead and consider the future of marine environmental history and historical ecology, and to consider how the knowledge assembled to date can be applied to marine resource management and conservation.

Dublin conference themes include:

1. New evidence of historical change in marine animal populations and ecosystems
2. Data management, modeling, and visualization in marine historical ecology
3. Linking history and science to policy and management.
4. Stories from the Sea: narratives, perceptions and representations of marine animals
5. Interaction between Human and Marine Animal Communities – long term changes in social and economic priorities.

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History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP)

HMAP is designed to enhance the knowledge and understanding of how and why the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life in the world’s oceans have changed over the long term. Over 100 researchers have engaged in this interdisciplinary research program since 2000. Generating historical evidence from sources that range from monastic ledgers and harbor records to kitchen middens, fishbones and whale teeth, the HMAP team has substantially increased our knowledge of the impact of humans on the marine environment, and the influence of natural factors on human welfare. HMAP forms the historical component of the Census of Marine Life. www.hmapcoml.org

Census of Marine Life – A Decade of Discovery

The first Census of Marine Life produced the most comprehensive inventory of known marine life ever compiled and cataloged it as a basis for future research—28 million records and counting! This first baseline picture of ocean life—past, present, and future—can be used to forecast, measure, and understand changes in the global marine environment, as well as to inform the management and conservation of marine resources. The scientific results were reported on October 4, 2010. www.coml.org

(Click to enlarge) The Antarctic ice fish has no red blood pigments and no red blood cells. This is an adaptation to cold temperatures. (Credit: J. Gutt, AWI/Marum, University of Bremen

(From Voice of America)

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about a ten-year study of the world’s oceans. We will also tell about four American women who are being honored for their work in science.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: A project called the “Census of Marine Life” tells its story in big numbers. Two thousand seven hundred researchers from eighty countries and territories took part in the Census. They attempted to estimate all the creatures in the world’s oceans. More than five hundred scientific expeditions were needed to complete the study. In all, the project cost six hundred fifty million dollars.

Great white shark. (Credit: Pascal Kobeh/Galatee Films)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Hundreds of the researchers gathered in London last month as the Census results were announced. The scientists said they have identified two hundred fifty thousand new species. Among them are one thousand two hundred new kinds of animals.

The scientists collected another five thousand species from the oceans during the ten years. But those creatures have yet to be identified. The researchers said as many as seven hundred fifty thousand other species have yet to be discovered.

Jesse Ausubel of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation helped organize the study. He said the researchers have established a baseline of what lives in the ocean. This standard, or measure, of comparison can be used in the future to note and document changes.

BOB DOUGHTY: Many of the project’s discoveries were of microbes. The scientists said extremely small life forms make up ninety percent of the ocean’s total living material, also known as biomass.

In two thousand six, scientific census-takers found a hairy new species of crab near Easter Island. They call it the “Yeti crab.” The creature got its name from a hairy, ape-like creature that supposedly lives in Tibet.

Another unexpected discovery was a squid almost six and one half meters long. The researchers also found an ancient shrimp. It is a small shellfish thought to have disappeared centuries ago.

Three species of small creatures that were documented do not require oxygen to live. Researchers found them on the floor of the Mediterranean Sea.  Also in the Mediterranean, a team of census-takers discovered a living fossil. The animal represents the last species of a kind of deep-water clam. The shellfish is believed to have lived around the world for more than one hundred million years.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The researchers learned that Pacific bluefin tuna crossed the Pacific Ocean three times in six hundred days. But puffins recorded the longest travel. These birds circle the earth every year, flying more than sixty four thousand kilometers.

Other discoveries showed reduced numbers of creatures valuable to the ocean environment. In some areas, for example, sharks have almost completely disappeared. Sharks provide a number of services for underwater life. And, about forty percent of plankton has disappeared in the past thirty years. Many fish depend on this small life-form for food.

BOB DOUGHTY: The Census of Marine Life began in two thousand. It started with seventy-five million dollars from the Sloan Foundation. Over the years, governments, laboratories, universities and other centers paid for the rest.

As one Project planning committee official said, the Census of Marine Life has enlarged the known world.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Three women are among ten winners of the National Medals of Science. Marye Anne Fox, Esther Conwell and Susan Lindquist will receive America’s highest honor for science.

Another woman, Helen Free, is among winners of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. That award is America’s highest honor for engineering and invention.

Over the years, each woman has won other honors and awards. Each belonged to influential professional organizations. Each has helped other women rise in traditionally male careers.

A committee appointed by President Obama made the nominations. The president will present the medals next Tuesday, November sixteenth. The National Science Foundation supervises the awards for the White House.

Marye Anne Fox (Credit: chancellor.ucsd.edu)

BOB DOUGHTY: Medal winner Marye Anne Fox is chancellor of the University of California at San Diego. Professor Fox has served as the university’s administrative head since two thousand four. She is being honored in part for her research in renewable energy sources.

Marye Anne Fox was born in nineteen forty-seven. She became a chemist when few women held such positions. She has worked to create partnerships between universities and industry. She also has helped get the federal government to provide billions of dollars for scientific research.

Professor Fox has provided information about scientific subjects to the United States Congress.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Medal winner Esther Conwell is a chemistry and atomic physics expert at the University of Rochester in New York. Her work helped lead to the modern computer. The awards committee noted the help she has given other women to become scientists.

Professor Conwell received a doctor’s degree in atomic physics in the late nineteen forties. That was extremely unusual at the time for a woman. By then, she already had worked on a project she calls her proudest work. She was studying at the University of Rochester when a professor suggested a research problem for her. Victor Weisskopf’s suggestion resulted in an explanation of how electrons travel through semiconductors. Some experts say the work caused a revolution in computers.

ESTHER CONWELL: “I was a graduate student at the University of Rochester. And it was proposed by my thesis advisor Professor Weisskopf that we work on this problem to understand the effect of the impurities in scattering electrons and interfering with their motion.

“And that work was completed and turned out to be an important thing, an important feature, something that you have to understand if you want to make the best use of electrons in transistors and other devices.”

Esther Conwell was born in nineteen twenty-two. She still works every day.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Medal winner Professor Susan Lindquist is with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She belongs to the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Professor Lindquist was born in nineteen forty-nine. She is being recognized for showing the importance of changes in the action of proteins. The actions, known as folding, can influence areas from human disease to nanotechnology, the technology of extremely small mechanisms.

Professor Lindquist’s laboratory studies how prions form. Prions are proteins. They can change into a form that is able to continue their own existence. The laboratory also studies the diseases they cause. She and her team also discovered a possible mechanism for speeding up evolution. Their discovery offers the possibility for creating better plant crops. It could lead to ending the need for genetic engineering of crops.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Another scientist has made life much easier for people with the disease diabetes. Helen Murray Free invented self-testing equipment that lets diabetics measure their own blood levels of glucose at home.

Helen Free developed dry reagents for urine testing. Reagents produce a chemical reaction – or lack of reaction – important in medical testing. She said she is proudest of having property rights to Clinistix Reagent Strips. When placed in a person’s liquid wastes, they can provide information about conditions like diabetes, infections and liver and kidney damage.

Helen Free was born in nineteen twenty-three in Pennsylvania. She spent her early career at Miles Laboratories in Indiana, where she still lives. Later the drug company Bayer, Incorporated bought Miles Laboratories.  She became a professional relations consultant to Bayer. She also taught at Indiana University and wrote books with her husband, Alfred Free.

Helen Murray Free is known for helping to launch organizations that help increase public interest in science. For example, she helped start “Kids & Chemistry.” In the program, scientists teach schoolchildren to perform hands-on experiments.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson. June Simms was our producer. I’m Bob Doughty.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for more news about science in VOA Special English

Last month, the results of the first Census of Marine Life (2000–10) were released to the public. The project, which catalogued the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine organisms, involved 17 separate field projects spread across the world’s oceans. Among them was the Tagging of Pacific Predators (TOPP) program, which tracked and monitored 23 species of animal, from the Humboldt squid to the Laysan albatross to that carnivorous showboat, the great white shark.

(From Britannica) — Britannica research editor Richard Pallardy posed some questions about the project to Randy Kochevar, principal investigator and public outreach coordinator for TOPP. Kochevar, who has in the past studied the organisms that live around hydrocarbon seeps and hydrothermal vents, was with the project from its inception. He now oversees public outreach initiatives for the Block Lab at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, CA.

Britannica: How were the species of predators that were tracked as part of this project selected?

Kochevar: In 1999 we began by assembling a large group of prospective collaborators who had been doing similar work, tagging and tracking ocean animals. We took suggestions from the group to make a big wish list, and then started narrowing it down. Some of the criteria were logistical – having to do with how readily the animals could be tagged, and at what cost.

But other considerations had to do more with the scientific questions we were hoping to ask.

One thing we were interested in was being able to compare seemingly similar species, to understand how they are ecologically distinct. So we tried to identify “guilds” of animals that would lend themselves to these kinds of comparisons. So for example, we had a tuna guild with bluefin, yellowfin and albacore tunas; and a lamnid shark guild, with salmon sharks, mako sharks and white sharks.

Eventually we ended up with a list of 23 species that we felt met all our criteria – although through our “TOPP Partners” program we have been able to incorporate some additional species not on that initial list.

Britannica: What types of data have been collected and how has that data filled in the gaps in our understanding of the lives of these predators?

Kochevar: Typically tags recorded depth, temperature and light – which is used to calculate location. The location data is the one most people think of in animal tracking projects, and we were often surprised to learn where animals actually went during their annual migrations. The depth data helped us to learn about their diving behavior, which can in turn tell us about what they are doing at different points along their journey. And the temperature data, along with other oceanographic data collected on some tags, tells us more about the environment the animals encountered along the way. Over the course of the decade of TOPP, the tagged animals collected hundreds of thousands of temperature/depth profiles of the ocean – a volume of data that would have cost millions of dollars and man hours to obtain any other way.

Britannica: How can understanding apex predators like great white sharks help us to understand the ocean ecosystem as a whole?

Kochevar: In talks about the TOPP program, we often begin with an analogy that is familiar to many people – of watching predators stalking prey on the African plain. If we were to observe only the predators – the lions, cheetahs, the hyenas, etc. – we would soon see that their movements follow those of the herbivores on which they feed, like zebras, antelope, etc. And the movements of these prey animals, in turn, are shaped by the availability of rich vegetation and water. So by watching the apex predators, we can readily discern the fertile valleys, the watering holes, the deserts, and the migratory corridors among them.

In the oceans, it is the same. By watching the apex predators, we can begin to discern the critical habitat areas used by multiple species. We can also see the ocean highways where animals travel from place to place, as well as the deserts where few animals roam. And by overlaying the movement data with oceanographic data, we can begin to understand what factors shape these different regions. So just by focusing on the apex predators, we can begin to understand how the overall ecosystem functions.

Britannica: What types of technology have been deployed as part of this project?

Kochevar: One decision we made early on was to rely on well-characterized tags for the bulk of our tagging efforts. TOPP scientists did help to refine and test a few tag innovations, such as GPS-based tags and tags that measure water salinity; but the greatest technical innovations were probably in the area of data management. Because nobody had ever undertaken such a large tagging project before, with so many different species carrying so many different types of tags, we had to develop a very flexible and powerful data management system which would allow us to assimilate, visualize, and analyze lots of different data types, and to deliver these data to our researchers on demand.

Britannica: Do any of these tagging procedures interfere with the animals’ natural behavior?

Kochevar: It’s a hard question to answer – since we don’t really have a way of observing un-tagged animals to make the comparisons. However, this is such a critical aspect of our work that we have done all we can to ensure that the tags allow the animals to function normally once they are released. We know that the vast majority of our animals continue to feed and migrate after they are tagged – as is obvious in the TOPP dataset. We’ve had many different fishes and sharks get re-captured months or years after they were tagged, with no signs of infection, etc., and we’ve had a variety of tagged animals successfully reproduce – suggesting that the tags do not interfere with their interactions with other animals.

In the oceans, Mother Nature continues to surprise and delight us with mesmerizing, jaw-dropping marine life that often wildly exceeds our imagination.

(From OceanDoctor.org) –Released at the completion of the decade-long Census of Marine Life, the new book from National Geographic, Citizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures From the Census of Marine Life, is not only rich with the captivating images you’d expect from the seasoned underwater photographers of National Geographic and the Census of Marine Life, but its delightful prose by author Dr. Nancy Knowlton — Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a scientific leader of the Census of Marine Life — brings these photographs to life in captivating vignettes that will playfully bend your brain with utterly amazing facts about these utterly amazing creatures, including the Bob Marley Worm and a fish with a head you (and it) can see right through. We visit with Dr. Knowlton at her office at Smithsonian and take a field trip to the Smithsonian’s latest and wildly popular exhibit, the “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.”

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This Week: Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

This Week’s Guest: Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science at Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

We go behind the scenes with Dr. Nancy Knowlton to learn about her incredible new book, Citizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures From the Census of Marine Life. Dr. Knowlton’s stories about the newest discoveries beneath the sea will delight, enlighten and inspire, while also painting a stark picture for the consequences should we not heed the call for badly-needed conservation. Get introduced to the Yeti crab, the Bob Marley worm, and the bizarre Barreleye, a fish with a transparent head among many others. And Nancy takes us on a field trip to Smithsonian’s latest exhibit, the “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.”

Nancy Knowlton is the Sant Chair for Marine Science at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a scientific leader of the Census of Marine Life. She founded the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography of the University of California, San Diego. Knowlton has devoted her life to studying, celebrating, and striving to protect the multitude of life-forms that call the sea home. She lives with her family in Washington, D.C.

Links

• Citizens of the Sea: Wondrous Creatures from the Census of Marine Life (Amazon.com)
• The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef (Smithsonian)
• The Ocean Portal (Smithsonian)

Pink Sea-Through Fantasia (Credit: Laurence Madin / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

» Click here to view slideshow.

Click here for more information.

Dr. Wes Tunnell

Finally, it was recently announced that Dr. Wes Tunnell, Vice Chair of the US National Committee, was honored by Texas Sea Grant when they announced that their Loggerhead Sportsmanship Award will be named after him.

The award is given annually to the team judged to best embody the spirit of earnest competition while demonstrating exemplary decorum during the Loggerhead Challenge Regional Competition of the National Ocean Sciences Bowl (NOSB), held in Corpus Christi. For more on this story please visit http://sci.tamucc.edu/news/2010/tunnell.html.

(Click to enlarge image) This is one of three putative new species of Enteropneust from the North Atlantic Ocean. (Credit: David Shale)

The Mid Atlantic Ridge Ecosystems (MAR-ECO) project of the Census of Marine Life recently returned from an expedition focused on the cold waters north of the Gulf Stream and the warmer waters to the south.

During more than 300 hours of diving, using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Isis, researchers surveyed flat plains, cliff faces and slopes of the giant mountain range that divides the Atlantic Ocean into two halves, east and west.   The ROV was equipped with an HD camera, allowing for the survey of over 50,000 meters of ocean floor in HD video.

Scientists believe the cruise will yield at least 10 new species currently undescribed and will lead to better understanding of the evolutionary processes that have shaped the deep-sea.  To view photos of species from the expedition and read the full press release, visit the MAR-ECO website. (http://www.mar-eco.no/mareco_news/2009/new_ecomar_discoveries)

Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight – creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves.

Revealed via deep-towed cameras, sonar and other vanguard technologies, animals known to thrive in an eternal watery darkness now number 17,650, a diverse collection of species ranging from crabs to shrimp to worms. Most have adapted to diets based on meager droppings from the sunlit layer above, others to diets of bacteria that break down oil, sulfur and methane, the sunken bones of dead whales and other implausible foods.

Five of the Census’ 14 field projects plumb the ocean beyond light, each dedicated to the study of life in progressively deeper realms – from the continental margins (COMARGE: Continental Margins Ecosystems) to the spine-like ridge running down the mid-Atlantic (MAR-ECO: Mid-Atlantic Ridge Ecosystem Project), the submerged mountains rising from the seafloor (CenSeam: Global Census of Marine Life on Seamounts), the muddy floor of ocean plains (CeDAMar: Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life), and the vents, seeps, whale falls and chemically-driven ecosystems found on the margins of mid-ocean ridges and in the deepest ocean trenches (ChEss:Biogeography of Deep-Water Chemosynthetic Systems).

Download:
Full press release (PDF)

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