The Deep Sea Smithsonian Ocean

Third, is the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), playing a technical and advisory role, particularly in delineating the outer limits of a state’s continental shelf. The Marine Science blog showcases the latest developments and research in the marine and freshwater sectors across all government departments. We have already protected over 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life – but there is still more to be done. Like everything about deep-sea mining, the full impact remains a mystery.

• The sinking organic material is composed of algal particulates, detritus, and other forms of biological waste, which is collectively referred to as marine snow.
• About 90 percent of the world’s fish (by weight) live in the mesopelagic—about 10 billion tons of fish.
• If an animal needs to blend in, bioluminescence can be used to help in camouflage with the use of counterillumination, a display of light that helps them blend into the background.
• The mouth cavity can stretch and expand to a much larger size than is expected for such a small fish and would perhaps be expected to allow this species to capture and swallow large prey items.
• These 6-inch, KONG-shaped globs are deep red to hide themselves in the twilight world, where red coloring acts like camouflage against the darkness.
• Depending on their payload, they can e.g. monitor flow direction and speed, the water’s oxygen content, or the number of particles that make their way to the deep from the surface.

Climate Change & Ocean Warming

The eel’s teeny eyes aren’t much help with hunting in the pitch-dark sea, so the gulper eel relies on a bioluminescent organ at the tip of its tail to attract prey. The eel’s massive jaws swing forward and its mouth opens to a diameter many times that of the rest of its body to literally gulp its prey. The skin of its “cheeks” and throat is so flexible that its entire head can blow up like a balloon, giving the gulper eel the shape of a lollipop, and allowing it to engulf prey much larger than the eel itself. They are among the deepest-living fish, found as far as 5,000 m (16,400 ft) down. However, they’re not the most perceptive creatures, relying on luck to bump into something edible.

Hydrothermal Vents

The deep sea is home to natural resources that have been a subject of interest since the 1970s. 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. In addition to manganese and iron, these clumps contain valuable metals like copper, nickel and cobalt.

Why is the Deep Sea Important for Earth?

This is possible thanks to biochemical reactions in which compounds known as luciferins react with oxygen and the enzyme luciferase. This leads to a molecular change that generates energy in the form of light. In this way, many jellyfish, but also some species of fish, squid, and other deep-sea fauna can emit a blue, green, or in some cases even red light. This is done e.g. to attract potential mates, lure in prey, or to illuminate their surroundings with organic “searchlights”. Bioluminescence first arose roughly 540 million years ago in a group of corals known as the octocorals. Animals can use their light to lure prey towards their mouths, or even to light up the area nearby so that they can see their next meal a bit better.

It’s time to turn the tide. Will you help our ocean thrive?

• But due to chemical and physical properties of water, this is, in fact, a reality.
• They are neither an octopus nor a squid and actually has its own order, the Vampyromorphida.
• The air mixes up with these oils making an emulsion, so that it cannot be crushed.
• An expedition led by a team of scientists from Uruguay discovered that the South American nation’s deep-sea coral reefs are thriving and teeming with life.
• Although most siphonophores live below the surface, the Portuguese Man o’War is one that rests on the surface, suspended by a gas-filled float.
• Members of Deep-Seafas recently contributed to the CCAMLR (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources) Ecosystem Monitoring and Management working group.

From a ginormous relative of the garden pillbug to fish with translucent heads, these organisms are adapted to the dark, cold, pressurized environment of the deep sea. Unclos states that the commercial exploitation of seabed minerals can only begin with the establishment of a general mining code, a comprehensive set of legal, environmental and operational regulations. Strewn across the sea floor of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, the coveted nodules and other forms of ocean deposits are gaining widespread attention.

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

The other end grows into a feathered fan that lets them extract oxygen from the water. Larvae that arrive later or land on another worm, become males, but never really grow beyond the larval form. Instead they live within the females’ bodies as parasites—sometimes over a hundred live in one female host. Scientists have found about 25 species of bone eating worms since they were first discovered in 2002, and many more are thought to exist. Some are specialized burrowers that dig within the bone for the fat, while others pick apart the surface layers.
According to a commonly used definition, it begins where the comparatively flat seafloor of the coastal regions segues into deeper and steeper areas. Depending on the respective region, this can be at very different water depths. In the Antarctic, for instance, the tremendous ice masses weigh down the continent considerably. Its margin, referred to as the continental shelf, can extend up to 500 metres below the water’s surface; only after this point does the deep sea begin. In contrast, in most other regions, this transition begins just 200 metres below sea level. The hadalpelagic is the very deepest part of the ocean that includes the ocean trenches.
At 1,000 meters (3,280 feet), the temperature is about that of a refrigerator. Deeper down, it gets colder and quieter near the ocean seabeds, some of which are paved with metallic gray rocks, resembling underwater cobblestone streets. Each rock started as something small — like a shark tooth or tiny fossil.

Eavesdropping on grunting groupers reveals how the fish communicate

The link between the two animals, which until 2012 had been classified as two different species, was only confirmed by comparing DNA sequences of larvae and adult specimens. Prior to this discovery, the question Deep Sea of what the ‘monster larvae’ grow into had been puzzling scientists for nearly 200 years. Biological collections from the Curasub off Curaçao have resulted in the discovery of numerous new and rare species of fishes, marine mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans.
In addition, fish rely on their lateral line organ, which allows them to detect even the smallest changes in currents and pressure to locate obstacles or other animals moving nearby. And last but not least, many deep-sea organisms have large eyes, helping them pick up the tiny amounts of residual light in the water or the light signals put out by other fauna. Below the ocean’s surface is a mysterious world that accounts for over 95 percent of Earth’s living space—it could hide 20 Washington Monuments stacked on top of each other.
Carranza and other scientists had first detected the coral reefs in 2010 using mapping technology. The team found that they were healthier, larger, and richer with life than they anticipated, and the tallest coral mound was just over 130 feet high. One of the largest reef complexes discovered is 984-feet-deep and covers the length of about 180 soccer fields.