tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/deep-sea-5022/articles
Deep sea – The Conversation
2024-01-31T23:08:48Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/220909
2024-01-31T23:08:48Z
2024-01-31T23:08:48Z
Mining the depths: Norway’s deep-sea exploitation could put it in environmental and legal murky waters
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572593/original/file-20240131-19-meg6yo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C1920%2C1276&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Icebergs floating in the ocean near Svalbard, an Arctic island chain on the edge of Norway’s proposed exploitation zone.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Christopher Michel/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/mining-the-depths-norways-deep-sea-exploitation-could-put-it-in-environmental-and-legal-murky-waters" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Norway has a reputation for environmental leadership, from championing <a href="https://www.cbd.int/countries/profile/?country=no">international biodiversity policies</a> to its wilderness <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/outdoor-recreation-act/id172932/">protection</a> and ambitious <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/dokumenter/nature-diversity-act/id570549/">biodiversity</a> regulations.</p>
<p>Now it is leading into another area, leveraging its long legacy of offshore oil and gas production into developing deep-sea mining.</p>
<p>In January Norway became the first nation to open its continental shelf to commercial deep-sea mineral exploration. The <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/norway-gives-green-light-for-seabed-minerals/id3021433/">approved proposal opens the door for “sustainable and responsible” exploration within an area of 281,000 square kilometres, roughly the size of Italy</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deep-sea-mining-may-wipe-out-species-we-have-only-just-discovered-173558">Deep-sea mining may wipe out species we have only just discovered</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But determining what constitutes sustainable and responsible deep-sea mining could put Norway in murky legal waters by pushing the boundaries of several international agreements to which it is a signatory. Beyond legal action, Norwegian society, businesses and global politics will play a part in deciding how this controversial industry develops. Other countries, such as Canada, should take note.</p>
<p>While the current government of Canada opposes deep-sea mining and has issued a <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/deep-sea-mining-canada-moratorium/">domestic moratorium</a>, there are <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-67935057">Canadian companies lobbying</a> for this industry to open in international waters. But there are more than a few hurdles in the way of a booming deep-sea mining industry — and for good reason.</p>
<h2>Mining in the deep</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.sodir.no/en/whats-new/news/general-news/2024/norwegian-shelf-opened-for-mineral-activity/">proposal to authorize deep-sea mining</a> was initiated by the ministry that has overseen Norway’s huge offshore oil industry for decades. It was asked to map “commercially interesting mineral deposits on the Norwegian continental shelf” and found <a href="https://www.sodir.no/en/facts/seabed-minerals/">sulphides and manganese crusts</a> with high concentrations of copper, zinc and cobalt, as well as rare earth elements.</p>
<p>The technologies needed to mine manganese crusts differ than those needed to mine sulphides. Manganese crusts are mined by scraping thin layers of minerals off of the edges of the deep-sea rocks, said Walter Sognnes, CEO of deep-sea mining company Loke Marine Minerals based in Norway, whom I interviewed for this story. Whereas, <a href="https://www.sciencenorway.no/deep-sea-mineralogy-mining/heres-how-valuable-resources-can-be-extracted-from-the-seabed-theres-a-goldmine-out-there/2285672">sulphides are mined by drilling into the seabed using technology from the oil and gas industry</a>.</p>
<p>Norway’s Ministry of Energy believes that the minerals from deep-sea mining could both meet the demand required of the green energy transition and secure the supply. But opposing scientists and organizations <a href="https://ejfoundation.org/reports/critical-minerals-and-the-green-transition-do-we-need-to-mine-the-deep-seas">argue that this logic is flawed</a>.</p>
<p>Opponents of deep-sea mining say that it will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00088-7">irreversibly damage biodiversity and ecosystems</a>, and warn that it will <a href="https://thefishingdaily.com/latest-news/norwegian-fishing-slams-government-proposal-on-deep-sea-mining/">impact fisheries</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.4071">cause sediment plumes, damage the seabed, increase pollution and contribute to several other spillover effects</a>.</p>
<p>If the Norwegian government advances deep-sea mining beyond the exploration phase, Sognnes expects that full-scale mining operations could be underway in Norway by the early 2030s.</p>
<h2>Norway’s continental shelf</h2>
<p>Under United Nations law, coastal countries have a <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/eez.html">200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone</a> extending out from their coastlines within which they have the right to explore and use the resources on the seabed and <a href="https://www.geo-ocean.fr/en/Science-for-all/Our-classrooms/Hydrothermal-systems/The-water-column">water column</a>.</p>
<p>This is true for Norway, however, in 2009 Norway’s request to extend its continental shelf was approved by a <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/clcs_new/submissions_files/submission_nor.htm">governing body at the UN</a>. This decision further added 235,000 square kilometres of seabed to Norway’s territory — though the water above the seabed is, crucially, not included as Norwegian territory.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9iy5jEHWykQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A report on deep-sea mining produced by DW Planet A.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That means that Norway’s proposed deep-sea mining activities will take place on the seabed, under Norway’s jurisdiction. However, as professor of maritime law at the University of Oslo Alla Pozdnakova described to me, any mining activities on Norway’s patch of sea-bed will “inevitably affect the water column where the <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/03/1134157">(High Seas) Treaty</a> will eventually apply” — with potentially significant legal repercussions.</p>
<h2>The High Seas — or not?</h2>
<p>In 2023, the UN’s High Seas Treaty was adopted by more than 80 nations — including <a href="https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/worlds-countries-reach-agreement-on-conservation-of-marine-biodiversity-in-the-high-seas/id2965405/">Norway</a> — and is meant to manage the two-thirds of the oceans outside any one country’s responsibility.</p>
<p>Mining brings many complicated legal issues that could involve the High Seas Treaty, said Pozdnakova.</p>
<p>For example, any of the 80 countries that signed the High Seas Treaty could propose a marine protected area anywhere in the high seas. In theory, this could be an area that Norway plans to deep-sea mine.</p>
<p>It’s also important to note that while the High Seas Treaty has been signed by Norway, it has not yet come into effect. But the timing of the treaty being ratified by Norway could align with deep-sea mining operations entering an exploitation phase, said Pozdnakova, which could further complicate the legal and political landscape for Norway.</p>
<p>There are also regional agreements that could raise concerns.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jus.uio.no/english/services/library/treaties/01/1-11/svalbard-treaty.html">Svalbard Treaty</a>, for example, is an agreement signed by Canada and 45 other countries. The treaty gives Norway sovereign rights over the archipelago. And it calls for equality between the signatories when it comes to maritime, industrial, mining and commercial activities.</p>
<p>Pozdnakova notes that there is some debate about the geographic extent of the treaty, which was signed in 1920. But depending on the treaty’s extent, some of the proposed area could overlap.</p>
<p>“Once some companies get a license…then immediately you have this issue going on about whether the Svalbard Treaty applies to this particular area and what it means,” said Pozdnakova.</p>
<p>The convention that protects the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic Ocean, known as the <a href="https://www.ospar.org/convention">OSPAR Convention</a>, could also raise concerns about deep-sea mining’s impact in the region from sediment plumes to impacts on fisheries and others. However, the convention does not prohibit Norway’s activities on its continental shelf, said Pozdnakova.</p>
<h2>Beyond the laws</h2>
<p><a href="https://savethehighseas.org/voices-calling-for-a-moratorium-governments-and-parliamentarians/">Several countries</a>, including Canada, France and others, have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining in “<a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2023/07/canadas-position-on-seabed-mining-in-areas-beyond-national-jurisdiction.html">areas beyond national jurisdiction</a>.”</p>
<p>Norway opening its continental shelf throws a wrench in the moratorium movement, said Rak Kim, associate professor of earth system governance at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University.</p>
<p>“I think that’s why it is such a disappointment that Norway has taken a different stance. Not because of the immediate impact that exploration might have, but it changes the political dynamic,” he said.</p>
<p>However, legal action is not the only way Norway could run into trouble in getting its deep-sea mining industry up and running.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mining-the-seabed-for-clean-tech-minerals-could-destroy-ecosystems-will-it-get-the-green-light-209690">Mining the seabed for clean-tech minerals could destroy ecosystems. Will it get the green light?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sustainable financing could play a role — especially if there is societal push back. “We already see some examples of some banks, financial institutions not wanting to invest in these kinds of activities,” said Pozdnakova. “The implications may be quite serious through these indirect kinds of actions.”</p>
<p>If society wants to keep its status quo, making more electric cars, mobile phones and computers, there is probably a reasonable argument to make for deep-sea mining, said Kim. But “the more fundamental question is, is technology the answer to the sustainability problems that we are facing?”</p>
<p>If technology is not the answer, “then maybe society needs to make a fundamental transition to something else,” said Kim.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220909/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ashley Perl works as a communications specialist for the World Wide Fund for Nature. This article was produced independently of her work there but as part of her work as a fellow in the Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact at the University of Toronto.</span></em></p>
Norway has become the first nation on earth to allow deep-sea mineral exploration. But opening this industry could put Norway in murky legal waters.
Ashley Perl, Fellow, Dalla Lana Fellowship in Journalism and Health Impact, University of Toronto
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209690
2023-07-20T20:04:49Z
2023-07-20T20:04:49Z
Mining the seabed for clean-tech minerals could destroy ecosystems. Will it get the green light?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538452/original/file-20230720-21-tkg1l4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1077&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Crab on polymetallic nodules</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NOAA Ocean Exploration</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A little-known organisation is meeting this week in a conference centre in Jamaica. The rules the <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/">International Seabed Authority</a> (ISA) are drafting could have immense impact. </p>
<p>That’s because this United Nations body has the power to permit – or deny – mining on the deep seabed, outside any nation’s exclusive economic zones. Boosters say the billions of tonnes of critical minerals like nickel, manganese, copper and cobalt lying in metal-dense nodules on the seabed could unlock faster decarbonisation and avoid supply shortages. </p>
<p>Developing Pacific nation Nauru has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/7/9/nauru-prepares-to-mine-deep-seas-in-big-climate-controversy">led the charge</a> to open up the seabed for mining, seeing it as a new source of income. (Ironically, Nauru itself was strip-mined for guano, leaving a moonscape and few resources.) </p>
<p>But researchers warn the mining could trash entire ecosystems, by ripping up the sea floor or covering creatures with sediment. Early indications from trial mining efforts suggest the process is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/14/deep-sea-mining-causes-huge-decreases-in-sealife-across-wide-region-says-study">worse than expected</a>, with long-lasting impact on sealife. </p>
<p>Almost 20 governments <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-joins-nearly-20-nations-calling-for-halt-to-deep-sea-mining-as-negotiators-meet-to-agree-rules-efbb32b5">are calling</a> for a moratorium or slowdown on mining. But China, Russia and South Korea <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/545da351-bd86-4145-9269-44857b89650e">are pushing</a> for mining to begin. </p>
<p>The ISA has already missed its July 9 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/07/gold-rush-deep-sea-devastation-seabed-oceans">deadline</a> to produce regulations governing seabed mining. That could mean we’re heading for a deep-sea free-for-all. </p>
<h2>Why mine the deep sea at all?</h2>
<p>Because no one owns it, and because parts of it are rich in easily accessible metals (once you get to the bottom, that is). Land-based mining usually involves processing vast volumes of rock, taking out the minerals you want and leaving the tailings behind. But on the seabed, things are different. </p>
<p>The main area prospectors are eyeing off is the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an abyssal plain 4,000–5,000 metres deep east of Hawaii. Here, plate tectonics and underwater volcanoes have produced huge numbers of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s43017-020-0027-0">polymetallic nodules</a>, accretions of minerals about 10-15 centimetres wide. They grow glacially slowly, about one centimetre every million years. But there are a lot of them – an estimated 21 billion tonnes in this zone alone, according to the ISA. </p>
<p>By 2050, demand for nickel and cobalt to make electric vehicle batteries could grow by up to 500%, according to the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/extractiveindustries/brief/climate-smart-mining-minerals-for-climate-action#:%7E:text=Smart%20Mining%20Video-,Overview,demand%20for%20clean%20energy%20technologies.">World Bank</a>. That’s why companies like Nauru’s partner, The Metals Company, <a href="https://metals.co/nodules/">are investing</a> in this type of mining. </p>
<p>Seabed mining, they argue, is an environmentally better option than expanding land-based mining into more challenging locations, mining low-grade ore bodies and risking contaminating waterways. </p>
<p>Boosters say seabed mining in international waters avoids the risk of dominance by a few countries or suppliers. For instance, the Ukraine-Russia war has hit battery grade nickel availability, as Russia is the primary global supplier.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-rush-is-on-to-mine-the-deep-seabed-with-effects-on-ocean-life-that-arent-well-understood-139833">A rush is on to mine the deep seabed, with effects on ocean life that aren't well understood</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>But what about the environment?</h2>
<p>This is the sticking point. The seabed in question is a pristine environment. While fishing trawlers already tear up <a href="https://europe.oceana.org/our-work-responsible-fishing-dirty-fishing-bottom-trawling-images-2/#:%7E:text=The%20largest%20deep%2Dsea%20bottom,miles%20of%20seabed%20each%20day.">large areas</a> of seafloor to devastating effect, mining would open up even more of the seabed. </p>
<p>Opposition has come from many conservation organisations, civil society representatives, governments like Canada, Germany, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. They want a moratorium on seabed mining based on the precautionary principle – not acting until we know what impact it will have. They argue we lack the technology to monitor the seabed and knowledge of the ecosystems of the deep, meaning we cannot be certain seabed mining can proceed without causing serious and long lasting harm. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02290-5">Early research</a> shows this type of mining can be destructive. </p>
<h2>Should the ISA have the power to decide this?</h2>
<p>It took 25 years for the UN to negotiate the <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/unclos_e.pdf">law of the sea treaty</a>. The treaty is clear about how we should protect and use the seabed, as part of the “common heritage of mankind”. The ISA was created to steward these commons, with the power to make rules in international waters. These cover two-thirds of the world’s oceans and 90% of known polymetallic nodule deposits. </p>
<p>The problem is many governments and organisations don’t think it’s fit for purpose. </p>
<p>The ISA is, like some other UN bodies, a complex bureaucracy and has been criticised for lacking transparency. Even though all 167 nations which signed the law of the sea treaty are automatically ISA members, critical decisions can be made with far fewer. </p>
<p>Applications to mine the seabed are approved or denied by the ISA’s council, which has 36 members. Council decisions stem from recommendations by a legal and technical commission, made up of 30 members appointed by the council. Dominated by lawyers and geologists, this commission, according to NGOs and governments, has <a href="https://savethehighseas.org/isa-tracker/2022/03/29/day-6-a-clear-demonstration-that-the-isa-is-not-fit-for-purpose/">ignored comments</a> and critique. Only a handful of the members have environmental expertise. </p>
<p>The council is also geared towards mineral extraction, with <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/organs/the-council/">many members</a> elected on the basis they already export minerals like nickel and manganese, have invested heavily in seabed mining technology, and already use significant volumes of these minerals. </p>
<p>The ISA’s secretary general Michael Lodge was earlier this year <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/21/row-erupts-over-deep-sea-mining-as-world-races-to-finalise-vital-regulations">criticised</a> by the German government for allegedly pushing to permit mining, an accusation Lodge rejected. </p>
<h2>So is it a done deal?</h2>
<p>Ideally, the authority would have more time to develop rigorous rules based on good environmental assessments. </p>
<p>But time is up. Two years ago, Nauru <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/07/gold-rush-deep-sea-devastation-seabed-oceans">triggered a clause</a> giving the ISA two years to produce a mining code and rules – a feat it had not previously managed. Those two years were up on July 9th and the code isn’t out. That means it’s now legally possible to lodge mining applications. </p>
<p>So because of the delays, we may be heading for a future where seabed mining becomes legal by default – without rules to govern it at all. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deep-seabed-mining-plans-pit-renewable-energy-demand-against-ocean-life-in-a-largely-unexplored-frontier-193273">Deep seabed mining plans pit renewable energy demand against ocean life in a largely unexplored frontier</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209690/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claudio Bozzi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Deep sea metallic nodules could help us shift to clean energy. But we don’t know how much damage it will do to ecosystems
Claudio Bozzi, Lecturer in Law, Deakin University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208651
2023-07-12T12:39:51Z
2023-07-12T12:39:51Z
Classic literature still offers rich lessons about life in the deep blue sea
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536664/original/file-20230710-27-mgth0w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5815%2C3234&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Novels about underwater adventures offer a glimpse at oceanic life.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/underwater-ocean-royalty-free-image/1485125421?phrase=underwater&adppopup=true">fotograzia via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When OceanGate, the deep-sea exploration enterprise, created a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi60tvRwRlE">promotional video</a> for its ill-fated US$250,000-per-head trip to see the wreck of the Titanic, it told prospective passengers to “Get ready for what Jules Verne could only imagine – a 12,500-foot journey to the bottom of the sea.” Those behind the video hoped viewers would recognize the allusion to the author of one of the most influential and widely read oceanic novels of all time, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/855909314">20,000 Leagues Under the Sea</a>.”</p>
<p>There are indeed eerie similarities between the 1870 French novel and the circumstances surrounding the Titan submersible, which <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/missing-submarine-titanic-search.html">lost contact less than two hours into its descent</a> into the depths of the Atlantic.</p>
<p>In the novel, a supposedly indestructible vessel strikes an iceberg. A man of untold wealth dreams of voyaging to the bottom of the sea, sharing with a select few passengers a glimpse of the mysteries of the deep. He descends to the ocean floor in order to gawk at the wreckage of a great ship that sank years before. But later in the novel a technical problem in the submarine starts a race against time as crew members try to reach the surface before their oxygen tanks are empty. And not everyone survives.</p>
<p>For me, as the leader of a “<a href="https://ihr.asu.edu/blue-humanities">Blue Humanities” initiative at Arizona State University</a> that explores how the literature of the past can inform the present about the importance of the oceans, revisiting the novel served another purpose. It reaffirmed for me how classic literature – particularly stories about adventures at sea and, quite frankly, misadventures, as well – continues to serve as one of the best ways for humanity to educate itself about the largely unexplored realm.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A character from Jules Verne's novel '20,000 Leagues Under the Sea' looks out a submarine." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536679/original/file-20230710-25-v6kppz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1116&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jules Verne’s novel ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ follows a wealthy man who voyages to the bottom of the sea to explore a ship that sank years before.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/captain-nemo-twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-sea-jules-news-photo/869034230?adppopup=true">Marka/Universal Images Group Editorial via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exploring the ‘seven seas’</h2>
<p>Verne’s original title had “les mers” - seas, plural. A “league” (French “lieue”) was a measure that has been different lengths at different times in history. In the novel, it is just over 2 miles. So Verne was alluding to distance traveled, not depth of descent. The deepest place on Earth, the <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-mariana-trench-is-7-miles-deep-whats-down-there/">Mariana Trench</a> in the Pacific, is only 3½ leagues down, whereas the journey of the imaginary submarine, Captain Nemo’s Nautilus, is a 40,000-mile circumnavigation of what used to be called “the seven seas.”</p>
<p>Verne’s novel and other classics – such as Herman Melville’s “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1263807806">Moby-Dick</a>” in 1851, and Thomas Hardy’s 1912 poem on the sinking of the Titanic, “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47266/the-convergence-of-the-twain">The Convergence of the Twain</a>” – are allegories of nature shattering the hubris of technology.</p>
<p>In Melville’s novel, the great white whale rams the good ship Pequod and drags Captain Ahab to a watery death. </p>
<p>For Hardy, <a href="https://www.historyonthenet.com/the-titanic-why-did-people-believe-titanic-was-unsinkable">the claim that the Titanic was “unsinkable</a>” is a prime example of human arrogance. In his poem, he imagines how sea-worms – “grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent” – now crawl over the gilded mirrors that were meant to “glass the opulent.”</p>
<h2>Unexplored depths</h2>
<p>The ocean bed remains an alien world. Like outer space, it is truly a final frontier. Indeed, it is often said that <a href="https://whalebonemag.com/know-more-about-mars-bottom-ocean/">we know more about Mars than we do about the bottom of the sea</a>. The National Ocean Service reminds us that the seas cover more than two-thirds of the planet. Still, “more than eighty percent of this vast, underwater realm remains <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/exploration.html">unmapped, unobserved, and unexplored</a>.”</p>
<p>The mysteriousness of what lurks down there makes the seabed a prime location for fantasy. This can be seen in <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/atlantis">Plato’s ancient idea of a lost kingdom called Atlantis</a>. And it can also be seen in the enduring idea of the <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/what-mermaid">mermaid</a>, or the comic world of SpongeBob SquarePants – which was created by a marine science educator, the late <a href="https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/spongebob-squarepants-creator-dead-dies-stephen-hillenburg-1203037362/">Stephen Hillenburg</a>.</p>
<p>There is an ingrained human fear of sinking below the waves. This fear is depicted in such haunting paintings as Théodore Géricault’s “<a href="https://smarthistory.org/theodore-gericault-raft-of-the-medusa/">The Raft of the Medusa</a>” and J.M.W. Turner’s “<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-shipwreck-n00476">The Shipwreck</a>.” So too, from the Greek tragedy of “<a href="https://fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/objects-and-artworks/highlights/context/stories-and-histories/the-death-of-hippolytus#:%7E:text=As%20he%20leaves%20his%20home,tell%20Theseus%20of%20the%20disaster.">Hippolytus” by Euripides</a> to “<a href="https://www.tor.com/2009/10/13/the-way-the-world-ends-john-wyndhams-lemgthe-kraken-wakeslemg/">The Kraken Wakes</a>,” a 1953 novel by science fiction writer John Wyndham, there is terror at the idea of a monster rising from the deep.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of the Titanic sitting on the ocean floor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536665/original/file-20230710-19-7wbdbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A spare anchor sits in its well on the forepeak of the shipwrecked Titanic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/forepeek-of-titanic-shipwreck-royalty-free-image/520112444?phrase=titanic&adppopup=true">Ralph White via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In our world of <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/bio/lauren-kubiak/marine-biodiversity-dangerous-decline-finds-new-report">marine biodiversity loss</a>, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08062016/coral-bleaching-alarms-scientists-climate-change-global-warming-great-barrier-reef/">bleached coral</a> and <a href="https://marinesanctuary.org/blog/ocean-acidification/">ocean acidification</a>, we need positive as well as paranoid imaginings of the deep. The literature of the sea gives us not only tales of maritime bravery and catastrophe, but also compelling imagery that fosters a more sobering understanding of the threats to the world’s oceans and oceanic life.</p>
<h2>Among the first</h2>
<p>Jules Verne was indeed a pioneer of the celebration of underwater life that has been the mission of natural history documentaries from Jacques Cousteau’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr4FrELKfvk">The Silent World</a>” in 1956 to Sir David Attenborough’s “<a href="https://www.bbcearth.com/shows/blue-planet">The Blue Planet</a>” in 2001.</p>
<p>It was only with the invention of the submarine that humans could reach more than a few feet below the surface of the waves. In the 1620s the Dutch inventor <a href="http://scihi.org/cornelis-drebbel-submarine/">Cornelis Drebbel</a> descended into the River Thames in a bell-shaped submersible powered by oars, his oxygen supplied by setting fire to saltpeter. </p>
<p>At the end of the 18th century there were <a href="https://archive.org/details/robertfultonsubm00parsrich/page/n15/mode/2up">rudimentary attempts at designing military submarines</a>, including a French one called the Nautilus, which gave Verne the name for his imaginary invention. His more immediate inspiration was the <a href="https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/02/priority-plongeur-french-submarine-launched-1863-first-world-propelled-mechanical-rather-human-power/">Plongeur</a>, designed for the French navy in the early 1860s. It reached a depth of 30 feet – or 9 meters – and could stay underwater for two hours. </p>
<p>Verne saw a model of it at the <a href="https://library.brown.edu/cds/paris/worldfairs.html#de1867">1867 Exposition Universelle</a> in Paris, where he also learned about a recent discovery: the mechanical power of electricity. He put the two things together and set about writing a novel about an electrically powered submarine with an invincible hull, snaking under the oceans at unprecedented speed.</p>
<p>In the initial draft, the fabulously wealthy and cultured Captain Nemo is a Polish nobleman and political radical in flight from the Russian imperialism that has destroyed his family and homeland. But <a href="https://frenchquest.com/2020/11/08/hidden-treasures-the-manuscripts-of-twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-sea/">Verne’s publisher made him remove the politics</a>, since Russia was a French ally at the time, so Nemo becomes a figure of mysterious origins. <a href="http://www.verniana.org/volumes/10/HTML/Bertman.html">The name, meaning “no one,</a>” was taken from the pseudonym for Odysseus, the original maritime voyager of Western literature and main character in Homer’s poem “The Odyssey.”</p>
<p>Nemo is both a hero and a murderous hater of humankind. Disillusioned by the modern world, he takes refuge in the wonders of the deep.</p>
<p>Verne read deeply in the nascent science of marine biology, poring over such works as M.F. Maury’s pioneering “<a href="https://library.si.edu/digital-library/book/physicalgeograp00maura">The Physical Geography of the Sea</a>,” published in 1855. By incorporating Maury’s research into an adventure story, Verne was able to educate readers of all ages about the astonishing richness of marine life. The novel is filled with detailed catalogs of fish and corals, delighted observations of organic forms ranging from sharks and whales to mollusks and tiny phosphorescent zoophytes. Like <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo27616248.html">Melville in “Moby-Dick</a>” a few years before him and the great environmentalist Rachel Carson in her “<a href="https://loa.org/books/699-the-sea-trilogy">Sea Trilogy</a>” nearly a century after him, Verne braids together scientific taxonomy and poetic imagery. Melville’s novel vividly realizes barnacles and squid as well as whales and sharks. Carson even makes the reader empathize with slimy eels. So too, Verne’s novel includes dozens of sentences <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2488/2488-h/2488-h.htm">such as this</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Then, as specimens of other genera, blowfish resembling a dark brown egg, furrowed with white bands, and lacking tails; globefish, genuine porcupines of the sea, armed with stings and able to inflate themselves until they look like a pin cushion bristling with needles; seahorses common to every ocean; flying dragonfish with long snouts and highly distended pectoral fins shaped like wings, which enable them, if not to fly, at least to spring into the air; spatula-shaped paddlefish whose tails are covered with many scaly rings; snipefish with long jaws, excellent animals twenty-five centimeters long and gleaming with the most cheerful colors; bluish gray dragonets with wrinkled heads; myriads of leaping blennies with black stripes and long pectoral fins, gliding over the surface of the water with prodigious speed; delicious sailfish that can hoist their fins in a favorable current like so many unfurled sails; splendid nurseryfish on which nature has lavished yellow, azure, silver, and gold; yellow mackerel with wings made of filaments; bullheads forever spattered with mud, which make distinct hissing sounds; sea robins whose livers are thought to be poisonous; ladyfish that can flutter their eyelids; finally, archerfish with long, tubular snouts, real oceangoing flycatchers, armed with a rifle unforeseen by either Remington or Chassepot: it slays insects by shooting them with a simple drop of water.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The scientist <a href="https://jbshaldane.org/">J.B.S. Haldane</a> once said, “The world will not perish for want of wonders, but for want of wonder.” Perhaps it is now time to reawaken a sense of wonder at the life of the oceans by returning to such classics of marine literature.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208651/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Bate does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The recent tragedy of the Titan submersible bore striking parallels to one of the most widely read novels about life at sea.
Jonathan Bate, Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/208359
2023-06-23T01:31:13Z
2023-06-23T01:31:13Z
What was the ‘catastrophic implosion’ of the Titan submersible? An expert explains
<p>The four day-long search for the missing Titan submersible has come to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/22/titanic-sub-titan-debris-field-search-area-latest">tragic end</a>. Reports have confirmed the vessel was subject to a “catastrophic implosion” at some point during its voyage towards the Titanic shipwreck, which would have killed all five passengers instantly.</p>
<p>A debris field comprising “five different major pieces of debris” of various sections of the submersible was found on the sea floor by a remotely operated vehicle, about 500 metres away from the bow of the Titanic, officials said. </p>
<p>These findings are in line with previous news that an acoustic signature “consistent with an implosion” was detected by the US Navy on the same day the Titan began its descent. </p>
<p>The navy’s seabed sensors detected the signature in the general area the vessel was diving when it lost communication with its mothership. At the time the signature was considered “not definitive”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-expert-explains-what-safety-features-a-submersible-should-have-208187">An expert explains what safety features a submersible should have</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1671976588563423232"}"></div></p>
<h2>What is a ‘catastrophic implosion’?</h2>
<p>We can assume the implosion actually happened on the first day of the dive – but perhaps not exactly at the same time communication was lost with the mothership. But why did it happen?</p>
<p>Most, if not all, submersibles and submarines operating at depth have a pressure vessel made of a single metallic material with high yield strength. This is typically steel for relatively shallow depths (roughly less than 300m), or titanium for deeper depths. </p>
<p>A titanium or thick steel pressure vessel is usually a spherical shape that can withstand the crushing pressures you might expect at 3,800m – the depth at which the Titanic wreck lies.</p>
<p>The Titan, however, was different. Its pressure vessel was made of a combination of titanium and composite carbon fibre. This is somewhat unusual from a structural engineering perspective since, in a deep diving context, titanium and carbon fibre are materials with vastly different properties. </p>
<p>Titanium is elastic and can adapt to an extended range of stresses without any measurable permanent strain remaining after the return to atmospheric pressure. It shrinks to adjust to pressure forces, and re-expands as these forces are alleviated. A carbon-fibre composite, on the other hand, is much stiffer and does not have the same kind of elasticity.</p>
<p>We can only speculate about what happened with the combination of these two technologies, which do not dynamically behave the same way under pressure. </p>
<p>But what we can say almost certainly is that there would have been some kind of loss of integrity due to the differences between these materials. A composite material could potentially suffer from “delamination”, which leads to a separation of the layers of reinforcement. </p>
<p>This would have created a defect which triggered an instantaneous implosion due to the underwater pressure. Within less than one second, the vessel — being pushed down on by the weight of a 3,800m column of water — would have immediately crumpled in from all sides. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1671907901542211584"}"></div></p>
<h2>The final moments</h2>
<p>When everything is designed, manufactured and tested perfectly, you’ve got a shape close enough to perfection that can withstand the overall pressure being applied from all directions. In this scenario, the material can “breathe” – shrink and expand as needed with depth. The Titan’s implosion means this was not happening. </p>
<p>The implosion itself would have killed everyone within less than 20 milliseconds. In fact, the human brain can’t even process information at this speed. As much as the news is devastating, perhaps it is somewhat reassuring the Titan’s passengers would not have suffered a terrifying and drawn-out end. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-extreme-frontier-travel-booming-despite-the-risks-208201">Why is extreme 'frontier travel' booming despite the risks?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208359/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Fusil is affiliated with the Royal Institution of Naval Architects and Engineers Australia</span></em></p>
Deep underwater, the Titan submersible would have been crushed in less than a second once a defect cracked the hull.
Eric Fusil, Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203787
2023-04-21T14:53:24Z
2023-04-21T14:53:24Z
Snailfish: the ‘impossible’ fish that broke two deep sea records shows the importance of ocean exploration
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521579/original/file-20230418-18-25ec26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C9%2C1014%2C527&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Images of the snailfish seen at the Izu-Ogasawara Trench.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2DMHimOl2o">University of Western Australia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When thinking of animals that live in the most extreme environments on Earth most of us probably don’t think of the snailfish. Its name may not hint at extraordinary physical capabilities but the snailfish has broken the record for living at the deepest ocean depths known to humanity. </p>
<p>In fact scientists believed it was physiologically impossible for fish to survive conditions below 8,200 metres. Until recently, when Australian and Japanese researchers <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65148876">found one at a record-shattering 8,336 metres</a> in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan. That’s <a href="https://newatlas.com/fish-filmed-record-depth/51067/">158 metres deeper than the previous record</a>, also set by a snailfish during an encounter in 2017 in the Marianas Trench, about 2,000km east of the Philippines. </p>
<p>The deep ocean has yet again shown us there is still much to be discovered if we only have the willingness to look. </p>
<p>Defined as waters below 200 metres, this environment makes up 50% of Earth’s surface. Researchers estimate that only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.036">10</a>-<a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127">28%</a> of marine life is <a href="https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=stats">currently known</a>, and most knowledge stems from <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2020.00384/full">researchers based in Europe, the US and Japan</a>.</p>
<p>Scientists believe a lack of understanding of ocean life and its distribution is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2022.09.002">one of the biggest barriers</a> to restoring marine biodiversity damaged by overfishing, pollution and climate change. </p>
<p>But when we do explore the deep ocean, we are often rewarded with new discoveries. </p>
<p>My current research focuses on the relatively shallow parts of the ocean from 0-500 metres. Even in relatively well-researched areas such as Bermuda, discoveries can still be made. <a href="https://nektonmission.org/missions/bermuda/bermuda-partners">In one oceanographic expedition</a>, the international team I was part of discovered <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.190958">vast expanses of black wire coral gardens</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.7717%2Fpeerj.3683">the deepest record of the invasive lionfish</a>, and several <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09670262.2018.1452297">new species of red algae</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520936/original/file-20230413-24-1yqpzl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black coral gardens in Bermuda.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nekton Foundation</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s common for <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0967064517303041?via%3Dihub">up to 50%</a> of all species (<a href="https://bg.copernicus.org/articles/17/6163/2020/">and sometimes almost 95%</a>) sampled on a single deep-ocean expedition to be new to science. New habitat discoveries are also common. In March 2023 scientists on an expedition to the Mid-Atlantic ridge for the Schmidt Ocean Institute discovered <a href="https://www.iflscience.com/three-new-hydrothermal-vents-found-and-theyre-shrimply-stunning-68217">numerous new hydrothermal vents</a> also known as black smokers (like geysers, or hot springs, on the ocean floor). </p>
<h2>Why deep ocean discoveries matter</h2>
<p>Research suggests <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrmicro1991">hydrothermal vents may have played a key role</a> in the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0684-z">origin of life</a> on <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ast.2017.1680">our planet</a>. So any new information about these unique ecosystems and their inhabitants has implications for humanity <a href="https://schmidtocean.org/cruise-log-post/ocean-worlds-beyond-earth/">as well as extraterrestrial life</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9yFVDAJ3Wt8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Hydrothermal vents also show the astonishing adaptability of life. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001234">In 2012, scientists discovered new species of crabs in the Southern Ocean</a>, the hairy-chested Hoff crabs. Named after their resemblance to the Baywatch actor David Hasselhoff, they construct crab cities around black smokers. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0048348">There can be more than 700 crabs per square metre</a>. The fur on their chest incubates microbes that can convert toxic chemicals that come out of scorching black smokers into energy. The crabs use special comb-like mouthparts <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001234">to remove the energy-rich bacteria from their fur to eat</a>. It is their main source of nourishment.</p>
<p>Apart from the excitement and wonder that comes with it, these discoveries provide new information that benefits society. Studies have found this habitat could harbour treatments for human diseases. Recently, researchers studied fungi found in cold-water animals called <a href="https://smartar-id.app/explore?hierarchicalMenu%5BtaxonomyTree0%5D=Cnidaria%20%3E%20Anthozoa%20%3E%20Octocorallia%20%3E%20Scleralcyonacea%20%3E%20Pennatulidae&page=1&configure%5BhitsPerPage%5D=50">sea pens</a> in the northeast Atlantic and discovered they produce compounds that show promise as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/md19070390">potential drug treatments for chronic musculoskeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sea pens resemble old fashioned quill pens" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521849/original/file-20230419-24-lrmy7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sea pens are filter feeder animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sea-pen-island-bali-tulamben-indonesia-1537052693">Ogurtsov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, studies show bacteria living in deep-water sponges <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/md19020105">may have both antibiotic and antitumour properties</a>. </p>
<p>The potential of bioprospecting – studying wildlife and plantlife for valuable new resources – has barely been explored in the case of deep ocean. But the industry is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aar5237">rapidly growing and already worth billions of dollars</a>. Countries agreed to share the benefits as part of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/09/the-guardian-view-on-the-un-ocean-treaty-arriving-just-in-time">UN high seas treaty in March 2023</a>. But the new international law has not yet been ratified and it is too soon to tell whether developed nations will stick to their pledge to share the ocean’s resources with all member states.</p>
<h2>Where do we go next?</h2>
<p>Very little of the deep ocean has been systematically explored so far due to financial and logistical constraints. Remotely-operated vehicles cost from <a href="https://www.deeptrekker.com/resources/rov-buying-guide">US$15,000 (£12,100) to millions of dollars</a>, while a submarine <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/triton-submarine-dive-to-deepest-point-in-ocean-2018-10?r=US&IR=T">built for deep ocean exploration</a> can cost almost US$50 million. In addition, offshore exploration requires <a href="https://noc.ac.uk/facilities/ships/rrs-discovery">large research vessels</a> to be deployed for weeks at sea which involves months of planning and logistics. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521572/original/file-20230418-16-gwlihx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Landers being deployed on a deep ocean survey in the Maldives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nekton Foundation</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The recent snailfish discovery was made during an international expedition involving Australian and Japanese researchers who set out to explore life in the trenches off Japan. For that study, the team used landers, metal cages that land on the seafloor using ballast weights. Landers are equipped with cameras, lights and bait for attracting predators. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4031/MTSJ.57.1.4">While it is possible to explore even the greatest ocean depths with submarines</a>, landers are easier to operate, and can stay underwater for longer. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B2DMHimOl2o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We are losing deep sea life before we can even discover it. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.062">Overfishing</a>, <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba4658">noise pollution</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-821575-3.00021-9">global warming</a> are already destroying deep ocean ecosystems and their inhabitants. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/26/deep-sea-mining-for-rare-metals-will-destroy-ecosystems-say-scientists">Commercial deep seabed mining</a> for minerals has not yet been carried out but it is a looming threat. </p>
<p>Governments allocate on average only <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/new-unesco-report-voices-concern-over-inadequacy-funding-ocean-research">1.7% of their annual research budgets</a> to explore beneath the ocean surface. If scientists make new discoveries with almost every study of the deep ocean, imagine what we could achieve if governments, charities and marine scientists worked more closely together and had better funding.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203787/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paris Stefanoudis receives funding from Nekton Foundation. </span></em></p>
The snailfish was recently found living at depths believed physically impossible.
Paris Stefanoudis, Researcher in Marine Ecology and Conservation, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203231
2023-04-04T20:20:35Z
2023-04-04T20:20:35Z
Monsters or masters of the deep sea? Why the deepest of deep-sea fish aren’t as scary as you might think
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519199/original/file-20230404-14-lonkuu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=411%2C425%2C1506%2C652&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/Article/2023/April/Scientists-break-new-record-after-finding-worlds-deepest-fish">Caladan Oceanic</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>How deep can fish live in the ocean? That question has captivated me for more than a decade. But my research team’s discovery of the <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/Article/2023/April/Scientists-break-new-record-after-finding-worlds-deepest-fish">deepest sea fish</a>, announced this week, might not be the final answer. There may be more. How deep – and how strange – remains open for debate.</p>
<p>Last year, my colleagues and I went on an expedition to the deep trenches around Japan. Having already found the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-worlds-deepest-fish-in-the-mariana-trench-and-why-we-must-keep-exploring-35743">Mariana snailfish</a> in 2014 – thought to be the deepest ever – we had a hunch that with more exploration and a better understanding of things like temperature, the Japanese trenches would host a fish at even greater depths. </p>
<p>After another 63 deployments of our deep-sea cameras, bringing our total to about 250 across the globe, we hit the jackpot.</p>
<p>We found what is likely a new species of fish in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench and filmed it many times at depths between 6,500 and 8,000 metres. Then, at a staggering 8,336m, a rather unassuming little juvenile slowly swam past the camera, oblivious to the fact it had just become the <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/news/Article/2023/April/Scientists-break-new-record-after-finding-worlds-deepest-fish">deepest fish on record</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wG1je9DDzbg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Researchers near Japan capture footage of deepest fish ever recorded underwater (The Guardian)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-things-you-never-knew-about-the-oceans-deepest-places-55172">Ten things you never knew about the ocean’s deepest places</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Much more than monsters</h2>
<p>If you ask someone what the deepest fish in the world looks like, they will probably conjure up an image of a scaly, black, stealthy creature with bioluminescent lures, large fangs, spiny fins and demonic eyes lurking in the depths waiting to strike at unsuspecting victims. It would be nothing like the shallow-water fish we eat, keep as pets, or pay to see in aquariums. It would be more the stuff of nightmares.</p>
<p>While these sorts of visually striking creatures do exist, they are often not that deep, or that big. Hatchet fish, fangtooth, lanternfish, dragonfish, viperfish and angler fish inhabit the mid-waters of the twilight zone (less than 1,000m deep). Many of these classically spooky monsters are actually very small and are simply enlarged in our imagination, in the absence of any sense of physical scale.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Side profile of the deep ocean Sloane viperfish (Chauliodus sloani)" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519205/original/file-20230404-20-7n3dx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sloane’s Viperfish is one of the most recognizable deep sea fishes with its long fang-like teeth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sloane-viperfish-chauliodus-sloani-deep-ocean-2257607267">Diego Grandi/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The black body, big eyes, bioluminescent lures and unfamiliar fins and textures are all adaptations to stealthy but efficient living in low-light conditions. </p>
<p>At deeper levels, where low-light adaptations are no longer required (because there’s a total absence of light), marine life takes on different, less dramatic forms. Adaptations to depth, or rather high pressure, are not usually things we can see, but rather changes at the level of cells or body tissues, to enable life at depth. </p>
<p>If we take, for example, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/snailfish-how-we-found-a-new-species-in-one-of-the-oceans-deepest-places-103003">deepest fish</a>, the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcb/article/41/1/ruaa102/6128500?login=true">deepest prawn</a>, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-023-04177-5">deepest jellyfish</a>, the deepest anemone and the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-020-03701-1">deepest octopus</a>, we find them at depths of 8,336m, 7,703m, 10,000m, 10,900m and 7,000m, respectively (between 4.3 and 6.8 miles deep).</p>
<h2>The deepest of the deep</h2>
<p>The deepest fish in the world isn’t really a deep-sea fish. They are snailfish in the family of ray-finned fishes called Liparidae. There are more than 400 species of snailfish, and most are found in shallow waters, or even estuaries in some cases. This family of fish has adapted to an array of different environmental settings and habitats, including the deepest. </p>
<p>We found the deepest of all in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench at 8,336m, but this fish does not conform to any preconceived visual impression of what the deepest dweller should look like. They are in fact small, translucent pink, quirky little fish that swim like tadpoles and would not look out of place in a sunlit lagoon. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two deep-sea snailfish specimens, like pink tadpoles, resting on a dark grey background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519202/original/file-20230404-20-m322pa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These two specimens are the deepest fish ever caught, recovered from a depth of 8022m in the Japan trench.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Jamieson</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, if we look at the deepest of the big crustaceans, which happen to be penaeid prawns (<em>Benthesicymus</em>), there is nothing all that unfamiliar about them. The can be up to a foot long, strikingly red in colour, and swim and behave in exactly the way one would expect a prawn to swim and behave in our coastal regions. It would not look out of place at the local fish market.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deep-sea-reefs-are-spectacular-and-barely-explored-they-must-be-conserved-197566">Deep sea reefs are spectacular and barely-explored – they must be conserved</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The deepest jellyfish looks like a normal jellyfish. The deepest anemones can be found attached to rocks at the very bottom of the Challenger Deep, the deepest place on Earth. These as yet unknown species are attached to rocks that filter food out of the water. They appear more plant-like, resembling delicate and beautiful flowers swaying in the wind. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two deep-sea images of the white anemone that resembles delicate and beautiful flowers swaying in the wind" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519206/original/file-20230404-22-bko7fm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like delicate flowers from an underwater garden at the deepest place on Earth, the deepest anemones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caladan Oceanic</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And then there is the octopus, an animal that has haunted sailors for centuries. In contrast, the newly discovered species of Dumbo octopus (<em>Grimpoteuthis</em>) is a small and cute little cephalopod with fins that resemble big ears (as in Dumbo the elephant). The species was filmed nearly 2,000 metres deeper than any other octopus or squid at a depth of nearly 7,000m.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OX7w5EcDX9o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A guide to the Dumbo octopus, from Deep Marine Scenes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The true masters</h2>
<p>Essentially, dark-sea creatures in the upper ocean detract from the real deep-sea creatures, giving us a false impression of the natural aesthetic of this community. </p>
<p>While the dark-sea animals have adapted to low light in a way that jars our imagination, the true deep-sea animals represent more of a case of where the wild things aren’t. </p>
<p>The snailfish are the true masters of the deep, not monsters of the deep. If we are to ever truly understand the ocean, and appreciate it as the largest habitat on Earth, we should retrain our brains and realise that even thousands of metres underwater, there are populations of little fish just going about their daily business.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A still image from deep sea video footage showing an octopus, snailfish and a prawn PLEASE CHECK approaching the fish food lure" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/519207/original/file-20230404-16-9ynrlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Coming for dinner, an octopus, two cusk eels and a prawn approaching one of the deep-sea cameras.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Caladan Oceanic</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ocean-is-not-a-quiet-place-184543">The ocean is not a quiet place</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203231/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Jamieson receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation. </span></em></p>
The discovery of the deepest fish in a Japanese trench raises the question, what else is out there? But before the mind leaps to all things dark and spooky, take a fresh look at life in the deep sea.
Alan Jamieson, Founding Professor of the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research centre, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197134
2023-02-01T13:24:59Z
2023-02-01T13:24:59Z
Scientists envision an ‘internet of the ocean,’ with sensors and autonomous vehicles that can explore the deep sea and monitor its vital signs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505223/original/file-20230118-24-dogl3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=753%2C753%2C7205%2C4708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A large robot, loaded with sensors and cameras, designed to explore the ocean twilight zone.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/work-impact/technology/mesobot/">Marine Imaging Technologies, LLC © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Deep below the ocean surface, the light fades into a twilight zone where whales and fish migrate and dead algae and zooplankton rain down from above. This is the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fma6MM359Z0">heart of the ocean’s carbon pump</a>, part of the natural ocean processes that capture about a third of all human-produced carbon dioxide and sink it into the deep sea, where it remains for <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4838858/">hundreds of years</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>There may be ways to enhance these processes so the ocean pulls more carbon out of the atmosphere to help slow climate change. Yet little is known about the consequences.</em></p>
<p><em>Peter de Menocal, a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=Etpzd_UAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">marine paleoclimatologist</a> and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, discussed ocean carbon dioxide removal at a recent <a href="https://tedxboston.com/planetary-stewardship/">TEDxBoston:</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLZP1f7L84FqRhJeC_72AsKm4ZvJgdqwT">Planetary Stewardship</a> event. In this interview, he dives deeper into the risks and benefits of human intervention and describes an ambitious plan to build a vast monitoring network of autonomous sensors in the ocean to help humanity understand the impact.</em></p>
<h2>First, what is ocean carbon dioxide removal, and how does it work in nature?</h2>
<p>The ocean is like a big carbonated beverage. Although it doesn’t fizz, it has <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/ocean-earth-system/ocean-carbon-cycle">about 50 times more carbon</a> than the atmosphere. So, for taking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it someplace where it won’t continue to warm the planet, the ocean is the <a href="https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/4811/2022/">single biggest place it can go</a>.</p>
<p>Ocean carbon dioxide removal, or ocean CDR, uses the ocean’s natural ability to take up carbon on a large scale and amplifies it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Illustration showing methods of carbon storage, including growing kelp" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=331&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505217/original/file-20230118-23-d817gq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Methods of ocean carbon storage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Natalie Renier/©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><iframe id="XZVDq" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/XZVDq/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Carbon gets into the ocean from the atmosphere in two ways.</p>
<p>In the first, air <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/the-oceans-biological-pump-captures-more-carbon-than-expected/">dissolves into the ocean surface</a>. Winds and crashing waves mix it into the upper half-mile or so, and because seawater is slightly alkaline, the carbon dioxide is absorbed into the ocean.</p>
<p>The second involves the biologic pump. The ocean is a living medium – it has algae and fish and whales, and when that organic material is eaten or dies, it gets recycled. It rains down through the ocean and makes its way to the ocean twilight zone, a level around 650 to 3300 feet (roughly 200 to 1,000 meters) deep.</p>
<figure><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/2494/whoi2.gif?1672717556"><figcaption>The years indicate how long deposited carbon is expected to remain before the water cycles to the surface. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</figcaption></figure>
<p>The ocean twilight zone sustains biologic activity in the oceans. It is the “soil” of the ocean where organic carbon and nutrients accumulate and are recycled by microbes. It is also home to the largest animal migration on the planet. Each day trillions of fish and other organisms migrate from the depths to the surface to feed on plankton and one another, and go back down, acting like a large carbon pump that captures carbon from the surface and shunts it down into the deep oceans where it is stored away from the atmosphere.</p>
<h2>Why is ocean CDR drawing so much attention right now?</h2>
<p>The single most shocking sentence I have read in my career was in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sixth-assessment-report-working-group-3/">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report</a>, released in 2021. It said that we have delayed action on climate change for so long that removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is now necessary for all pathways to keep global warming <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2865/a-degree-of-concern-why-global-temperatures-matter/">under 1.5 degrees Celsius</a> (2.7 F). Beyond that, climate change’s impacts become increasingly dangerous and unpredictable.</p>
<p>Because of its volume and carbon storage potential, the ocean is really the only arrow in our quiver that has the ability to take up and store carbon at the scale and urgency required.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JeYjSPuyjgc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Peter de Menocal at TEDxBoston: Planetary Stewardship.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A 2022 <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26278/a-research-strategy-for-ocean-based-carbon-dioxide-removal-and-sequestration">report by the national academies</a> outlined a research strategy for ocean carbon dioxide removal. The three most promising methods all explore ways to enhance the ocean’s natural ability to take up more carbon.</p>
<p>The first is <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/climate-weather/ocean-based-climate-solutions/">ocean alkalinity enhancement</a>. The oceans are salty – they’re naturally alkaline, with a <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/how-the-ocean-works/ocean-chemistry/ocean-acidification/">pH of about 8.1</a>. Increasing alkalinity by dissolving certain powdered rocks and minerals makes the ocean a chemical sponge for atmospheric CO2.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Vibrant corals of many types and colorful fish." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503166/original/file-20230105-129741-5tcaos.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Studies show increasing alkalinity can also reduce ocean acidification stress on corals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_barrier_reef.JPG">Wise Hok Wai Lum/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A second method adds micronutrients to the surface ocean, particularly soluble iron. Very small amounts of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-022-00250-w">soluble iron can stimulate greater productivity</a>, or algae growth, which drives a more vigorous biologic pump. Over a dozen of these experiments have been done, so we know it works.</p>
<p>Third is perhaps the easiest to understand – <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/26278/chapter/1">grow kelp in the ocean</a>, which captures carbon at the surface through photosynthesis, then bale it and sink it to the deep ocean. </p>
<p>But all of these methods have drawbacks for large-scale use, including cost and <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/complicated-role-iron-ocean-health-and-climate-change-180973893/">unanticipated consequences</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The view looking toward the ocean surface through a kelp forest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505225/original/file-20230118-7884-4i46xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kelp takes up carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sunlight-streaming-through-a-forest-of-giant-kelp-news-photo/635826440">David Fleetham/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’m not advocating for any one of these, or for ocean CDR more generally. But I do believe accelerating research to understand the impacts of these methods is essential. The ocean is essential for everything humans depend on – food, water, shelter, crops, climate stability. It’s the <a href="https://sos.noaa.gov/catalog/datasets/ocean-atmosphere-co2-exchange/">lungs of the planet</a>. So we need to know if these ocean-based technologies to reduce carbon dioxide and climate risk are viable, safe and scalable.</p>
<h2>You’ve talked about building an ‘internet of the ocean’ to monitor changes there. What would that involve?</h2>
<p>The ocean is changing rapidly, and it is the single biggest cog in Earth’s climate engine, yet we have almost no observations of the subsurface ocean to understand how these changes are affecting the things we care about. We’re basically flying blind at a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00915-7">time when we most need observations</a>. Moreover, if we were to try any of these carbon removal technologies at any scale right now, we wouldn’t be able to measure or verify their effectiveness or assess impacts on ocean health and ecosystems.</p>
<p>So, we are leading an initiative at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to build the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/OVSN_Carbon.mp4?_=1">world’s first internet for the ocean</a>, called the <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/fowler-center-ocean-climate/related-activities-and-initiatives/">Ocean Vital Signs Network</a>. It’s a large network of moorings and sensors that provides 4D eyes on the oceans – the fourth dimension being time – that are always on, always connected to monitor these carbon cycling processes and ocean health. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Illustration showing where different species live at different depths in the ocean." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505221/original/file-20230118-17-lamel0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top predators such as whales, tuna, swordfish and sharks rely on the twilight zone for food, diving down hundreds or even thousands of feet to catch their prey.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Eric S. Taylor /© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Right now, there is about one <a href="https://argo.ucsd.edu/">ocean sensor</a> in the global Argo program for every patch of ocean the size of Texas. These go up and down like pogo sticks, mostly measuring temperature and salinity.</p>
<p>We envision <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/fowler-center-ocean-climate/related-activities-and-initiatives/#:%7E:text=The%20Ocean%20Vital%20Signs%20Network,circulation%20patterns%2C%20geochemical%20reactions%2C%20and">a central hub in the middle of an ocean basin</a> where a dense network of intelligent gliders and autonomous vehicles measure ocean properties including carbon and other vital signs of ocean and planetary health. These vehicles can dock, repower, upload data they’ve collected and go out to collect more. The vehicles would be sharing information and making intelligent sampling decisions as they measure the chemistry, biology and environmental DNA for a volume of the ocean that’s really representative of how the ocean works.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A large robot with a light and sensors descends into darker water" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/505212/original/file-20230118-14-8t42gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mesobot starts its descent toward the ocean twilight zone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marine Imaging Technologies, LLC © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Having that kind of network of autonomous vehicles, able to come back in and power up in the middle of the ocean from wave or solar or wind energy at the mooring site and send data to a satellite, could launch a new era of ocean observing and discovery.</p>
<h2>Does the technology needed for this level of monitoring exist?</h2>
<p>We’re already doing much of this engineering and technology development. What we haven’t done yet is stitch it all together.</p>
<p>For example, we have a team that works with <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5240338/">blue light lasers</a> for communicating in the ocean. Underwater, you can’t use electromagnetic radiation as cellphones do, because seawater is conductive. Instead, you have to use sound or light to communicate underwater.</p>
<p>We also have an <a href="https://acomms.whoi.edu/">acoustics communications</a> group that works on <a href="https://techtransfer.whoi.edu/whoi-engineers-work-to-adapt-swarming-capabilities-for-low-cost-uuvs/">swarming technologies</a> and communications between nearby vehicles. Another group works on how to dock vehicles into <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/ocean-tech/moorings-buoys/">moorings in the middle of the ocean</a>. Another specializes in mooring design. Another is building chemical sensors and physical sensors that measure ocean properties and environmental DNA. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fma6MM359Z0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A tour of sea life in the ocean twilight zone.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This summer, 2023, <a href="https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/about/">an experiment in the North Atlantic</a> called the Ocean Twilight Zone Project will image the larger functioning of the ocean over a big piece of real estate at the scale at which ocean processes actually work.</p>
<p>We’ll have acoustic transceivers that can create a 4D image over time of these dark, hidden regions, along with gliders, new sensors we call “minions” that will be looking at ocean <a href="https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/work-impact/technology/">carbon flow, nutrients and oxygen changes</a>. “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaNZH1sXGEo">Minions</a>” are basically sensors the size of a soda bottle that go down to a fixed depth, say 1,000 meters (0.6 miles), and use essentially an iPhone camera pointing up to take pictures of all the material floating down through the water column. That lets us quantify how much organic carbon is making its way into this old, cold deep water, where it can remain for centuries.</p>
<p>For the first time we’ll be able to <a href="https://twilightzone.whoi.edu/work-impact/technology/">see just how patchy productivity is</a> in the ocean, how carbon gets into the ocean and if we can quantify those carbon flows. </p>
<p>That’s a game-changer. The results can help establish the effectiveness and ground rules for using CDR. It’s a Wild West out there – nobody is watching the oceans or paying attention. This network makes observation possible for making decisions that will affect future generations.</p>
<h2>Do you believe ocean CDR is the right answer?</h2>
<p>Humanity doesn’t have a lot of time to reduce carbon emissions and to lower carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere.</p>
<p>The reason scientists are working so diligently on this is not because we’re big fans of CDR, but because we know the oceans may be able to help. With an ocean internet of sensors, we can really understand how the ocean works including the risks and benefits of ocean CDR.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter de Menocal is the president and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.</span></em></p>
The ocean twilight zone could store vast amounts of carbon captured from the atmosphere, but first we need a 4D monitoring system to ensure ramping up carbon storage does no harm.
Peter de Menocal, Director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197410
2023-01-15T19:00:44Z
2023-01-15T19:00:44Z
They say we know more about the Moon than about the deep sea. They’re wrong
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504341/original/file-20230112-21-7zgk62.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C15%2C2580%2C1924&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Jamieson</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>We know more about the Moon than the deep sea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This idea has been repeated for decades by <a href="https://www.minderoo.org/deep-sea-research/news/launch-of-minderoo-uwa-deep-sea-research-centre-reveals-the-world-in-the-deep-east-indian-ocean/">scientists and science communicators</a>, including Sir David Attenborough in the 2001 documentary series <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet">The Blue Planet</a>. More recently, in Blue Planet II (2017) and other sources, the Moon is replaced with Mars.</p>
<p>As deep-sea scientists, we investigated this supposed “fact” and found it has no scientific basis. It is <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/78/3/797/6042988">not true in any quantifiable way</a>. </p>
<p>So where does this curious idea come from?</p>
<h2>Mapping the deep</h2>
<p>The earliest written record is in <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-navigation/article/abs/exploration-of-the-deep-sea/E1C7BCDB586128FA188841503E160379">a 1954 article</a> in the Journal of Navigation, in which oceanographer and chemist George Deacon refers to a claim by geophysicist Edward Bullard. </p>
<p>A 1957 <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41366206">paper</a> published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts states: “the deep oceans cover over two-thirds of the surface of the world, and yet more is known about the shape of the surface of the moon than is known about that of the bottom of the ocean”. This refers specifically to the scant amount of data available on the topography of the sea floor and predates both the first crewed descent to the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench (1960), and the first Moon landing (1969). </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor-32751">Just how little do we know about the ocean floor?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This quote also predates the practice of using ship-mounted echo-sounders to map the sea floor from acoustic data, known as <a href="https://www.hydro-international.com/content/article/a-note-on-fifty-years-of-multi-beam">swathe bathymetry</a>. </p>
<p>Almost a quarter of the world’s sea floor (<a href="https://seabed2030.org/news/seabed-2030-announces-increase-ocean-data-equating-size-europe-and-major-new-partnership-un">23.4%</a>, to be precise) has been mapped to a high resolution. This amounts to about 120 million square kilometres, or about three times the Moon’s total surface area. This may be why the comparison has shifted to Mars, which has a surface area of 145 million square kilometres. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An image of the western half of the Pacific Ocean, showing sea floor depths in different shades of blue." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=520&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504343/original/file-20230112-14-4glul5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=653&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Almost a quarter of the world’s seafloor has been mapped in detail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gebco.net/data_and_products/imagery/">GEBCO</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What’s more, high-resolution maps do not constitute the <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor-32751">total sum of knowledge</a>. The deep ocean must be considered in three dimensions – and, unlike the Moon, it is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534709002997">diverse and dynamic ecosystem</a>.</p>
<h2>A surprising number of visitors</h2>
<p>Another related and incorrect comparison is that more people have set foot on the Moon than have visited the deepest place on Earth. </p>
<p>This statement is difficult to substantiate. “The deepest place on Earth” could refer to the Mariana Trench, or just the deepest part of it (the Challenger Deep, named for the British survey ship HMS Challenger). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photo of a submarine with a round protrusion on the bottom, hanging in the air from a hoist." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504345/original/file-20230112-16-uuivvm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The bathyscaphe Trieste was the first crewed vessel to reach Challenger Deep, in 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_Deep#/media/File:Bathyscaphe_Trieste.jpg">US Navy</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, at least 27 and as many as 40 or more people have visited the Challenger Deep as of early 2023. On the other hand, only <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/890/who-has-walked-on-the-moon/">12 people have “set foot” on the Moon and 24 people have visited it</a>.</p>
<h2>Out of sight, out of mind</h2>
<p>So why do people keep saying we know more about the Moon or Mars than the deep sea?</p>
<p>It feels natural to compare the deep sea to space. Both are dark, scary and far away. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photo of a full moon over the sea." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504346/original/file-20230112-15-tzonw0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=678&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We see the Moon all the time – but the depths of the ocean are much harder to imagine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/IpK3kFBNJzQ">Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But we can see the Moon very easily by simply looking up. By being able to see it, we accept an apparently glowing rock hanging in the sky more easily than that parts of the ocean are very deep. We can see the Moon wax and wane and we can experience the push and pull of the tides. </p>
<p>It feels like we know more about the Moon than the deep sea, because we are forced to accept its presence. It intrudes on our lives in a tangible way that the deep sea does not. </p>
<p>We don’t think much about the deep sea unless we’re watching a documentary or horror film, or perhaps reading about some “horrific alien-like monster” dredged up by a deep-sea trawler.</p>
<h2>A useful analogy</h2>
<p>Because the deep sea is so physically inaccessible, comparing it to space may offer a useful analogy for an otherwise difficult-to-imagine ecosystem. But <a href="https://youtu.be/Mu0cjWof2ug">some deep-sea scientists</a> argue that the persistent estrangement of the deep sea minimises the vast amount of research about it that has emerged in recent decades. </p>
<p>Deep-sea biology is relentlessly referred to as a discipline that knows less about its own field of study than a relatively small, barren rock devoid of atmosphere, water and life. And yet this self-deprecating line is repeated by scientists themselves, who may find that highlighting the deficit of knowledge about the deep sea helps to promote the need for ocean research.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the idea we know more about the Moon than the deep sea is at best about 70 years out of date. We know much more about the deep sea – but there is even more left to be known.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/final-frontiers-the-deep-sea-13270">Final frontiers: the deep sea</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197410/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prema Arasu receives funding from Inkfish.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Jamieson receives funding from the Minderoo Foundation and Inkfish.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Linley works for Armatus Oceanic Ltd. He is affiliated with The Deep-Sea Podcast. </span></em></p>
The idea we know more about the Moon than the deep sea is seductive – but it’s 70 years out of date.
Prema Arasu, Postdoctoral research fellow, The University of Western Australia
Alan Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology, Newcastle University
Thomas Linley, Research Associate, Marine Ecology, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173558
2021-12-10T13:52:22Z
2021-12-10T13:52:22Z
Deep-sea mining may wipe out species we have only just discovered
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436901/original/file-20211210-17-ueqjxi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1547%2C1076&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Antarctic hydrothermal vents.;</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">MARUM, Bremen Germany</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Deep sea hydrothermal vents harbour some of the most extraordinary species on our planet. Lying at two to three kilometres below the surface, these extreme, insular ecosystems are powered, not by the sunlight-driven photosynthesis that we’re used to, but by energy from superheated mineral-rich seawater jetting from cracks in the seafloor. This supports thriving and unique animal communities with a density of life that <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uaXuCVuYVDUC&oi=fnd&pg=PR17&dq=The+ecology+of+deep-sea+hydrothermal+vents.&ots=ZLQeb0wd3s&sig=6xhCRnXPynw9ZFSm_dg9vipS8mE#v=onepage&q=The%20ecology%20of%20deep-sea%20hydrothermal%20vents.&f=false">rivals tropical rainforests or coral reefs</a>. From giant red tubeworms to iron-armoured snails, these species were once considered to be untouchable by human activity, but that may not be the case for very long.</p>
<p>There is growing industrial interest in the deep sea. Most importantly, this includes mining for metals like copper, lead and zinc which form the towering hydrothermal vent structures. The International Seabed Authority, the UN body responsible for managing the seafloor beyond national jurisdictions, has already granted 31 <a href="https://isa.org.jm/exploration-contracts">exploratory deep sea mining contracts</a>, seven of them at hydrothermal vents.</p>
<p>It is still unclear exactly how these huge mining machines will impact the deep seafloor. But there’s no reason to expect it will be any more eco-friendly than mining on land. At the very least, mining will destroy habitats and release toxic sediment plumes, so scientists agree <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00053/full">it’s not good news</a> for deep-sea creatures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="image of lots of different vent molluscs" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436941/original/file-20211210-19-w70sym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=669&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deep sea vent molluscs come in many different shapes and sizes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chong Chen</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With these growing concerns, my colleagues and I saw a need for a simple but effective approach to help identify conservation priorities and clearly communicate the mining threat. The obvious choice was to collaborate with the world’s foremost conservation authority, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which publishes the <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">Red List of Threatened Species</a>. The IUCN Red List uses a series of universally renowned categories like “endangered” or “critically endangered” to raise awareness of threats and inform everyone of the extinction risk facing species.</p>
<p>We then applied the Red List criteria to all 184 vent-restricted mollusc species (snails, bivalves, and so on), one of the most dominant groups at hydrothermal vents. We found that <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.713022/full">almost two-thirds are threatened with extinction</a> by deep-sea mining, with more than 20% listed as critically endangered. Our findings are now officially part of the updated Red List. </p>
<p>One species, the dragon snail <em>Dracogyra subfusca</em>, is only known from a single hydrothermal vent site around the size of two football fields in the Indian Ocean. This area of seafloor is under one of the exploration-phase mining contracts agreed by the International Seabed Authority and as a result the dragon snail, a species <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00392/full">only discovered in 2017</a>, is now considered critically endangered. </p>
<p>Another group of my favourite vent molluscs are the spiky-shelled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/16/joe-strummer-has-deep-sea-snail-named-after-him">punk rock</a> snails <em>Alviniconcha</em>. All six species are now listed as vulnerable or endangered because of the threat of mining.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a spiky snail on black background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436909/original/file-20211210-133881-1u0k0k9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Alviniconcha strummeri</em>, a spiky deep-sea snail first described in 2014, is named after lead singer of The Clash, Joe Strummer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Anders Waren / Swedish Museum of Natural History</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An ecosystem under threat</h2>
<p>These molluscs are likely representative of an entire ecosystem under threat. Unsurprisingly, since mining is the single biggest reason these animals are listed as threatened, any other groups of vent species assessed under the same Red List criteria would face the same levels of extinction risk. </p>
<p>Hydrothermal vents aren’t even the only target of the deep-sea mining industry. Further afield, there are contracts to mine the <a href="https://metals.co/nodules/">potato-sized lumps of metal</a> found scattered on the seafloor and the cobalt-rich crusts of underwater mountains. Both ecosystems are similarly home to a host of unique species that may take decades to millennia to recover from any human impacts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annotated map of the world" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436932/original/file-20211210-140109-25glut.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deep sea mineral deposits: polymetallic nodules – the potato-sized lumps – are in blue; cobalt crusts in yellow; vents in red.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00418/full">Miller et al (2018) / Frontiers in Marine Science</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Why does this all matter? Deep-sea mining and its sustainability is a global issue – the deep seafloor is meant to be the “common heritage of mankind”, as defined by the UN’s <a href="https://www.un.org/depts/los/convention_agreements/texts/unclos/part11-2.htm">Convention on the Law of the Sea</a>, yet it’s easy to forget about the deep sea and its many wonders. In fact, you are likely reading this article on a phone or a laptop, possibly entirely unaware of the ongoing debate over whether to mine the deep to source the valuable metals needed to power these devices. </p>
<p>But the clear vulnerability of these habitats has already begun to dissuade people – just in the past few months, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/google-bmw-volvo-samsung-sdi-sign-up-wwf-call-temporary-ban-deep-sea-mining-2021-03-31/">global corporations like Google and BMW</a> have committed not to source materials from the seabed or to finance deep-sea mining. Delegates of the recent IUCN World Conservation Congress overwhelmingly voted in support of a <a href="https://www.iucn.org/news/europe/202109/iucn-members-overwhelmingly-vote-upscale-nature-protection-europe">moratorium on deep-sea mining</a>.</p>
<p>There is an opportunity here not to make the same mistakes in the deep sea as were made on land. Ultimately, colleagues and I hope the vent Red List can provide a new platform to ensure the conservation of these unique deep-sea habitats. And if commercial-scale mining at hydrothermal vents is given the green light in the coming months, the extinction of some of the deep-sea’s most charismatic species is likely to be its legacy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173558/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elin Angharad Thomas receives funding from Queen's University Belfast Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences. She is also affiliated with the IUCN SSC Mollusc Specialist Group.</span></em></p>
Among the dozens of endangered species, is a spiky snail named after The Clash lead singer, Joe Strummer.
Elin Angharad Thomas, PhD Researcher, Deep-Sea Biology, Queen's University Belfast
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161438
2021-06-09T09:33:22Z
2021-06-09T09:33:22Z
The Irish lough that offers a window into the deep sea
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/404208/original/file-20210603-27-149ztky.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C8002%2C2477&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lough Hyne Marine Nature Reserve, West Cork, Ireland.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Valerio Micaroni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Deeper than most scuba divers can safely work and above where most underwater robots are designed to descend lie some of the most poorly studied ecosystems in the world. Between 30 and 150 metres down is the ocean’s <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/24750263.2019.1677790">mesophotic zone</a>, meaning middle-light. Communities of life exist here at the limit of where photosynthesis can occur. On rocky surfaces in the cold water, seaweeds slowly give way to sponges, anemones, and sea squirts – small tube-like creatures that filter plankton from the water.</p>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/the-irish-lough-that-offers-a-window-into-the-deep-sea-161438&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Sandwiched between shallow and deeper environments, these twilight ecosystems <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-marine-biological-association-of-the-united-kingdom/article/abs/seasonal-fall-out-of-sessile-macrofauna-from-submarine-cliffs-quantification-causes-and-implications/95A26D2A411A64246791E9B742875103">offer food and habitat</a> to the fish and other species we catch. The lower light levels mean they can forage with less risk of being seen and eaten by predators.</p>
<p>But the distance of these ecosystems from the surface doesn’t spare them from human influences. Sediment and nutrients from farms and mines obscure the light reaching the seafloor, while fishing pots and nets can damage the fragile animals living in mesophotic ecosystems. <a href="https://niwa.co.nz/education-and-training/schools/students/climate-change/oceans">Rising sea surface temperatures</a> are likely to be affecting these areas in ways we still don’t understand, as their remoteness makes it very difficult to study.</p>
<p>Remarkably, one of our best guides to what’s happening down there can be found much closer to the surface, in a saltwater lake tucked away on Ireland’s southern coast.</p>
<h2>Lough Hyne marine reserve</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.thewildatlanticway.com/waw/lough-hyne/">Lough Hyne</a> is the Republic of Ireland’s only marine reserve – a protected area of the ocean – and it supports more than 1,850 species in just half a square kilometre. The lough is more than 50 metres deep, but even in its shallows, <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-1982-7_6">animals and plants</a> grow that would more typically be found in the mesophotic. </p>
<p>Sponges and anemones that are usually found 30-40 metres down occur in the lough as shallow as five metres. In research we published 20 years ago, we described the wide range of animals living beneath the surface on the rocky cliffs, including <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-marine-biological-association-of-the-united-kingdom/article/abs/factors-influencing-the-density-and-morphometrics-of-the-cup-coral-caryophyllia-smithii-in-lough-hyne/5E386AB6CBFDE9C64BF517E3D9DC7026">cup corals</a>, <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:HYDR.0000008497.66443.03">wandering lobsters</a> and spider crabs. Most conspicuous are the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-1982-7_6">sponges</a>, which form <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-319-17001-5_24-1">dense gardens</a> of more than 100 species. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A split image of four different sponge species." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403334/original/file-20210528-15-wemd8i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sponge diversity in Lough Hyne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Bell</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The lough is connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow, shallow channel. The rocky sill that runs across it restricts the water flowing in and out, with currents only detectable inside the lough during the incoming tide. This relative calm lets sediment in the water settle and reduces how much light can penetrate. These conditions, combined with the lough’s sheltered nature, create ecosystems at shallow depths that would normally emerge in much deeper water. Lough Hyne lets scientists study the mesophotic without the logistical challenges of working there.</p>
<h2>A dramatic shift</h2>
<p>The mesophotic communities of the lough were thought to have changed very little for decades. That was until a 2016 visit, when we noticed a dramatic shift.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969721027790">recently published research</a>, we reported how the abundance of sponges in the lough shrank by half between 2000 and 2018. Slow-growing sponges, particularly those species which form branches, were worst affected. In some places, sponges had disappeared completely. In their place, faster-growing sea squirts and dense tufts of seaweed had proliferated.</p>
<p>These changes were most dramatic where water currents were at their weakest, in the lough to the west. Unfortunately, there has been no consistent monitoring of the lough’s underwater cliffs, so it’s impossible to say exactly when the change occurred. But based on older surveys and conversations with regular visitors, we think it happened sometime between 2010 and 2015.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A before and after shot of a rocky surface, with bright sponges lost from the after image." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403335/original/file-20210528-17-19jard6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lough Hyne’s underwater cliff communities underwent dramatic changes between 2010 and 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nick Owen & Valerio Micaroni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s difficult to be certain what caused the change, whether it was a natural event or the result of human activities. There could have been a sudden increase in the amount of sediment reaching the lough from the surrounding land, or an <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272771413001029">unusual quirk in the lough’s chemistry</a>, or a sudden change in temperature.</p>
<p>Sponges living just outside the lough in shallow water don’t appear to have been affected. But we have no idea if mesophotic habitats around the coasts of Ireland and Britain, similar in species make-up to those in Lough Hyne, have changed too.</p>
<p>Thanks to support from Ireland’s <a href="https://www.npws.ie">National Parks and Wildlife Service</a> of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, we’ve established new long-term monitoring stations – areas of the seabed we’ve marked out to return to year after year – on the underwater cliffs, to assess any further changes. Happily, we are already starting to see new sponges starting to settle and grow.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A split image of four different young sponges." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=561&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403336/original/file-20210528-19-a9rtg7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=705&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The new sponge recruits which have settled on the bare cliffs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Valerio Micaroni</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At this stage, it’s not clear if all the sponge species will return, or how long it might take for the larger sponges to grow back. To our knowledge, the sudden disappearance of sponge gardens on this scale has never happened in the lough before. Our new surveys will help reveal how fast these unique communities recover from disturbances though, and allow us to track any future changes, as well as their causes. Not only will this help us better manage Lough Hyne, but also other mesophotic ecosystems across the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161438/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Bell receives funding from National Parks and Wildlife Service of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in Ireland.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob McAllen and Valerio Micaroni do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
In Lough Hyne’s shallows, animals and plants thrive that would otherwise be found in the ocean’s depths.
Professor James J Bell, Professor of Marine Biology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Rob McAllen, Professor of Marine Conservation, University College Cork
Valerio Micaroni, PhD Candidate in Coastal and Marine Biology and Ecology, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159703
2021-04-26T04:18:07Z
2021-04-26T04:18:07Z
Indonesian submarine found: what might have happened to the KRI Nanggala in its final moments?
<p>After a five-day search, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/25/missing-indonesian-submarine-found-broken-up-in-bali-sea">wreckage</a> from Indonesia’s missing submarine KRI Nanggala has been discovered at a depth of more than 800 metres in the Bali Sea. </p>
<p>With no survivors from the 53-person crew — and no certainty the cause of disaster will ever be confirmed — the Indonesian Navy will need to decide how much effort it devotes to examining and salvaging the wreckage.</p>
<h2>Footage from a deep catastrophe</h2>
<p>Initial examination of the sunken vessel suggests the wreckage is in three pieces, with the boat’s hull and stern separated.</p>
<p>The Indonesian Navy (TNI-AL) has released video footage, taken by a remotely operated underwater vehicle belonging to the Singaporean Navy, which appears to show one of the fins mounted on the boat’s stern.</p>
<p>The other pictures may show sections of the interior, but it’s not immediately entirely clear exactly what part of the boat they are.</p>
<p>It <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46245686">took one year</a> to find Argentinian submarine San Juan after it sank in 2017. Nanggala’s discovery so early in the search suggests the boat was near its last reported position. So whatever went wrong likely did so as the submarine was diving.</p>
<p>At this stage, it is impossible to know what triggered the incident. Causes could include a material or mechanical failure leading to catastrophic flooding of one or more compartments. It does not take much loss of buoyancy for a submarine to lose control of its depth. </p>
<p>There could have been a fire, something particularly feared by submariners in their enclosed environment. Or there could have been human error. Submariners, however, have very carefully developed and extensively drilled standard operating procedures. Material failure is the more likely cause.</p>
<p>Regardless of the trigger, the tragic fate of KRI Nanggala would have been sealed once it passed the depth at which its hull and fittings could not withstand the increasing pressure. There is no hard and fast figure for the exact depth at which this occurs. </p>
<p>Submarines such as Nanggala have an individual safe operating depth of at least 260m. What is known as the “crush depth” will be much more than that. But the risk of hull collapse increases very rapidly as depth increases. At 800m, Nanggala had no chance of surviving intact.</p>
<h2>How much recovery is worth the effort?</h2>
<p>Indonesian authorities hope to salvage Nanggala’s wreckage, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/deep-sorrow-joko-widodo-sends-condolences-to-families-of-sunken-submarine-20210425-p57m8k.html">according to reports</a>. This is possible and there is some precedent for this. The United States’ 1974 mission <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120728214106/http:/www.kansaspress.ku.edu/shacia.html">codenamed Project “Azorian”</a> involved the covert recovery (from much deeper water) of large components of a sunken Soviet missile-carrying submarine.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, bringing some 1,300 tonnes of metal back to the surface from a depth of more than 800m remains a formidable proposition. Only a handful of salvage organisations would even be capable of such a task. </p>
<p>It would also be very expensive. One could argue the resource-constrained Indonesian Navy has better things to spend its money on, including its remaining four submarines.</p>
<p>Furthermore, there is no guarantee the specific cause of the disaster will ever be discovered. Submarines are large and complex machines and the “black box” systems in aviation would not cover all the possible problems that might have arisen with Nanggala. </p>
<p>The best approach would be to follow up the initial video examination of the wreckage with a more detailed mapping of the wreck site and all the material strewn on the seabed. Coupled with the selective recovery of components, this could help provide some answers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/submarines-are-designed-to-hide-so-what-happens-when-one-goes-missing-159634">Submarines are designed to hide – so what happens when one goes missing?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Preventing future disaster</h2>
<p>The Indonesian Navy will now be subjecting its own organisation to examination. However likely it is Nanggala experienced a material failure, there will still be a review of training standards and operational procedures.</p>
<p>The navy’s submarine arm has been challenged by its recent expansion from a force of two to five boats. There were new commissionings in 2017, 2018 and as recently as last month — with the first submarine to be assembled in Indonesia, the KRI Aluguro, accepted into service.</p>
<p>Nanggala’s equally elderly sister-ship, Cakra, which has been subject to a <a href="https://www.indomiliter.com/dsme-menangkan-proyek-overhaul-kapal-selam-kri-cakra-401/">recent modernisation and refit</a>, may be taken out of commission to minimise the chance of another accident. In any case, Cakra will be examined closely to see if there are any hitherto unrecognised problems with metal fatigue or other potential causes of failure. </p>
<p>Despite the benefit of a full refit and the “zero lifing” of many key components this involves, as well as the replacement of old systems, the Cakra has been in commission for just over 40 years. This is a long time.</p>
<h2>Solidarity from across the globe</h2>
<p>The loss of 53 sailors is a tragedy for Indonesia and its navy. All over the world, naval people and submariners in particular will be sharing Indonesia’s sorrow. </p>
<p>Submarine operations are inherently high-risk and are very demanding of every crew member. They require extraordinary levels of teamwork and absolute trust in the professionalism of everyone on board. So intense is this professional culture that, at times like this, an international solidarity manifests.</p>
<p>Apart from the immediacy and transparency of the Indonesian Navy’s management of the situation, it has been encouraging to see the readiness of other nations to provide immediate and effective assistance, and the speed with which they came together. </p>
<p>This was most clearly evidenced in the key role Singapore’s submarine rescue vessel played in the wreck’s discovery. But Australia, India, Malaysia, the United States and other countries were also quick to provide what help they could.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-to-learn-despite-another-report-on-missing-flight-mh370-and-still-no-explanation-100764">Lessons to learn, despite another report on missing flight MH370 and still no explanation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Goldrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Rescuers have released photos of the submarine wreckage, found more than 800 metres deep. What happens now?
James Goldrick, Adjunct Professor in Naval and Maritime Strategy and Policy, Australian National University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/152357
2021-01-07T19:09:34Z
2021-01-07T19:09:34Z
Ireland has corals, and they survive in extreme conditions at the edge of a submarine canyon
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376550/original/file-20201223-15-1n6pz65.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C3%2C2580%2C1932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Meet Ireland's coral: this photo was taken 800 metres below the waves.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Lim</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people associate the word “coral” with sunshine, blue skies and Australia’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/154/">Great Barrier Reef</a>. In fact, more than half of the 5,100 species on the planet exist as “cold-water corals” in deep and dark parts of the world’s oceans. </p>
<p>Unlike most other animals, corals are immobile and so rely heavily on currents to transport tiny bits of organic material to feed on. Over time, in some cases <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.12.020">millions of years</a>, cold-water corals can grow to eventually form huge skyscraper-sized structures on the seabed called “coral mounds”. These structures are common in the north east Atlantic at the edge of the Irish continental shelf. They can be several kilometres long and reach 100 metres or more in height – taller than any building in Ireland. </p>
<p>I have been studying the cold-water coral habitats off the coast of Ireland for a number of years, and have found these mounds of fossilised coral and sediment are incredibly varied. Some are completely covered with live coral while others have lots of dead coral on the surface, and the mounds themselves have very different shapes and sizes.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Seabed map of the north east Atlantic." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376452/original/file-20201222-17-f0cdyb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Porcupine Bank is found 230 miles south west of Ireland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Porcupine_Bank_and_Seabight,_NE_Atlantic.png">CIreland / NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One place of interest is the Porcupine Bank Canyon, the largest submarine canyon at the edge of Ireland’s continental shelf. Colleagues and I wanted to understand why the coral there varied so much over short distances. </p>
<p>To do this, we used the Irish Marine Institute’s <a href="https://www.marine.ie/Home/site-area/infrastructure-facilities/research-vessels/deepwater-rov">deepwater research submersible</a> to gather sonar data and deploy monitoring systems. This equipment is essential to retrieve information from habitats that can be found almost a kilometre beneath the surface. We recently published the results of our work in the Nature journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-76446-y">Scientific Reports</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Some yellow equipment lowered from a crane into the sea" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376400/original/file-20201222-23-11phrf1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The remotely operated submersible Holland 1 is lowered down from the research vessel Celtic Explorer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Lim</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Images show that corals are thriving at the very edge of the canyon on a near-vertical cliff face. Monitoring stations deployed nearby showed that the currents here were fast, sometimes more than a metre per second, the highest speed ever recorded in a cold-water coral habitat. Nevertheless, there was also more coral rubble at these sites, which may be the result of these faster currents.</p>
<p>We then used video footage captured by the submarine to generate 3D reconstructions of the coral habitats which we could analyse to understand how deep water currents were influencing them. Interestingly, while the corals can survive these extreme conditions, it appears that they still prefer it when the current slows down as they then find it easier to feed. As the cold-water corals live in such remote parts of the planet, in the past experiments have been run in tanks in laboratories which show <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jembe.2016.04.002">similar results</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientific equipment beside some coral, deep ocean canyon in background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/376401/original/file-20201222-17-1uphtvp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A monitoring stations finds coral at 800 metres depth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aaron Lim</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the world warms, so too will the oceans. Winds over the sea surface are getting stronger, causing average <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/6/eaax7727">ocean currents to accelerate</a> by around 5% per decade since the 1990s. It’s still unclear exactly how these huge mounds of coral deep below the surface of the ocean will respond to these changing conditions, especially since coral lives on such long time scales. After all, these coral mounds grow very slowly, no more than a mere <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2009.06.014">12cm every thousand years</a>. </p>
<p>Yet despite their slow growing nature, colleagues and I have previously found these mounds have exhibited changes over just four years, with increased amounts of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.margeo.2017.09.008">coral rubble</a> and significant decreases in the coverage of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr.2019.03.004">particular coral species</a>.</p>
<p>This is why our team recently deployed the monitoring stations for another year. We’re looking out for things like increased production of coral rubble, or growth of coral on the mounds. Ultimately, our aim is to determine how these corals will respond to these tough and changing conditions in the long run. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JYNjKnnLqNs?wmode=transparent&start=2" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A short documentary on the author’s trip to Porcupine Canyon.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Horizon 2020 iAtlantic program, with co-funding by the Marine Institute and Geological Survey, Ireland. All shiptime was funded by the Marine Institutes National Shiptime Program.</span></em></p>
But these ‘cold-water coral’ are threatened by accelerating sea currents.
Aaron Lim, Post-doctoral Researcher, Marine Geoscience, University College Cork
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/137314
2020-04-30T18:04:59Z
2020-04-30T18:04:59Z
Seafloor currents sweep microplastics into deep-sea hotspots of ocean life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331111/original/file-20200428-110748-9h5etb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C1920%2C859&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A rockfish hides in a red tree coral in the deep sea.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-water_coral#/media/File:Rockfish_red_tree_coral.png">Geofflos</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What if the “<a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2010/08/where-has-all-plastic-gone">great ocean garbage patches</a>” were just the tip of the iceberg? While more than ten million tonnes of plastic waste <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/CONTENT/347/6223/768.abstract?casa_token=Sdi_ZcOeGXQAAAAA:PLMyljNUWe3Ah0A5Gy-SfYr7afjJTAwJtk4PqZ36YzA0gWWqfdOmCUhuQzhLSKiW2GXEigMvhiz9">enters the sea</a> each year, we actually see just 1% of it – the portion that <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124006/meta">floats on the ocean surface</a>. What happens to the missing 99% <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-oceans-plastic-problem-is-closer-to-home-than-scientists-first-thought-123422">has been unclear for a while</a>. </p>
<p>Plastic debris is gradually broken down into smaller and smaller fragments in the ocean, until it forms particles smaller than 5mm, known as microplastics. <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aba5899">Our new research</a> shows that powerful currents sweep these microplastics along the seafloor into large “drifts”, which concentrate them in astounding quantities. We found up to 1.9 million pieces of microplastic in a 5cm-thick layer covering just one square metre – the highest levels of microplastics yet recorded on the ocean floor.</p>
<p>While microplastics have been found on the seafloor worldwide, scientists weren’t sure how they got there and how they spread. We thought that microplastics would separate out according to how big or dense they were, in a similar manner to natural sediment. But plastics are different – some float, but more than half of them sink.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pristine-antarctic-fjords-contain-similar-levels-of-microplastics-to-open-oceans-near-big-civilisations-91360">Pristine Antarctic fjords contain similar levels of microplastics to open oceans near big civilisations</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Plastics which once floated can sink as they become coated in algae, or if bound up with other sticky minerals and organic matter. Recent research has shown that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-018-0080-1?source=post_page">rivers transport microplastics to the ocean</a> too, and laboratory experiments revealed that giant underwater avalanches of sediment <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b07527">can transport these tiny particles</a> along deep-sea canyons to greater depths. </p>
<p>We’ve now discovered how a global network of deep-sea currents transports microplastics, creating plastic hotspots within vast sediment drifts. By catching a ride on these currents, microplastics may be accumulating where deep-sea life is abundant.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331010/original/file-20200428-110752-xbb6aq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Once plastic debris has broken down and sinks to the ocean floor, currents sweep the particles into vast drifts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Kane</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From bedroom floors to the seafloor</h2>
<p>We surveyed an area of the Mediterranean off the western coast of Italy, known as the Tyrrhenian Sea, and studied the bottom currents that flow near the seafloor. These currents are driven by differences in water salinity and temperature as part of a system of ocean circulation that spans the globe. Seafloor drifts of sediment can be many kilometres across and hundreds of metres high, forming where these currents lose their strength. </p>
<p>We analysed sediment samples from the seafloor taken at depths of several hundred metres. To avoid disturbing the surface layer of sediment, we used samples taken with box-cores, which are like big cookie cutters. In the laboratory, we separated microplastics from the sediment and counted them under microscopes, analysing them using infra-red spectroscopy to find out what kinds of plastic polymer types were there.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331009/original/file-20200428-110757-1cvadmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A microplastic fibre seen under a microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Kane</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Most microplastics found on the seafloor are fibres from clothes and textiles. These are particularly insidious, as they can be <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep33997">eaten and absorbed by organisms</a>. Although microplastics on their own are often non-toxic, studies show the build-up of toxins on their surfaces can <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026974911936960X?via%3Dihub">harm organisms if ingested</a>. </p>
<p>These deep ocean currents also carry oxygenated water and nutrients, meaning that the seafloor hotspots where microplastics accumulate may also be home to important ecosystems such as deep-sea coral reefs that have evolved to depend on these flows, but are now receiving huge quantities of microplastics instead.</p>
<p>What was once a hidden problem has now been uncovered – natural currents and the flow of plastic waste into the ocean are turning parts of the seafloor into repositories for microplastics. The cheap plastic goods we take for granted eventually end up somewhere. <a href="https://ocean.org/media-releases/new-report-canadian-and-us-laundry-releases-trillions-of-plastic-microfibers-into-the-ocean/">The clothes</a> that may only last weeks in your wardrobe linger for decades to centuries on the seafloor, potentially harming the unique and poorly understood creatures that live there.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137314/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Clare receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council CLASS National Capability Programme (NE/R015953/1). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Kane does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Here’s how microplastics from your clothes end up in the deep sea.
Ian Kane, Reader in Geology, University of Manchester
Michael Clare, Principal Researcher in Marine Geoscience, National Oceanography Centre
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/133276
2020-03-17T14:31:23Z
2020-03-17T14:31:23Z
Why an Indian ocean deep sea mission will help the Maldives and Seychelles manage their oceans
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319535/original/file-20200310-61113-iwcl08.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The submersible will allow scientists to film the seabed and take samples</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">NEKTON</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Oceans cover over <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/world-oceans-day-healthy-oceans-healthy-planet-1891167205.html">70%</a> of our “blue” planet and are vital to its health. For instance <a href="https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/689-the-ocean-and-the-carbon-cycle">carbon moves</a> in and out of the ocean and can be stored there for thousands of years. Oceans are also <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/nairobiconvention/news/story/blue-economy-indian-ocean-governance-perspectives-sustainable-development-region">a source of food</a> and livelihood to millions of people, and to the economies of coastal countries.
They are also the <a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/oceanography/living-ocean">largest habitable</a> space on the planet and house many different organisms. </p>
<p>But there’s a great deal that scientists still don’t know about the world’s oceans. </p>
<p>The “deep sea” is <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/light_travel.html">traditionally defined</a> as below 200m. Usually light from the sun can’t reach these depths and they are home to organisms that have special adaptations to live here. These waters are often in remote areas, and are beyond the reach of all but specialist technologies, therefore much of the deep sea remains under-explored. </p>
<p>Exploration is <a href="https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4664.1.2">always revealing</a> species that are new to science. Many of these could be directly important to humans, for example some <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/18/2/107">contain specific</a> compounds that may aid medicinal advances. </p>
<p>The Seychelles and the Maldives are now jointly launching a new deep-sea scientific mission in the Indian Ocean that is focused on seamounts – large land-forms that rise from the ocean floor but don’t reach the surface. Because of a limit in equipment and experts, there have not been any systematic biological surveys of this region at these depths before. Historically, this type of research has been near countries with better access to resources, such as those on the shores of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.</p>
<p>The mission of the <a href="https://nektonmission.org/missions/first-descent-midnight-zone">“First Descent: Midnight Zone”</a> is to understand what lives in the water, from the surface to the seabed. We also want to know how this changes from waters in the Seychelles to the Maldives.</p>
<p>This information will eventually be available on open access databases, building on the global knowledge of the deeper ocean for other scientists and policy makers.
We hope that this information enables countries to understand how to manage their oceans better. </p>
<h2>Equipment</h2>
<p>Our expedition is made up of scientists from many different disciplines who are coming together to document biological, physical and chemical parameters. This will provide us with valuable baseline data which can also be used to predict life in other sites that we couldn’t explore.</p>
<p>The gear we will use ranges from traditional oceanographic technologies to newly developed equipment. </p>
<p>For example we will use a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCJKWU99UVg">multibeam echo-sounder</a> – a type of sonar – to visualise the shape and depth of the seamounts. Sensors and water samplers will examine water columns – imagine columns of water from the surface of the ocean to the bottom. <a href="https://aquaticbiotechnology.com/en/plankton-nets/neuston-net">Neuston nets</a> – like a net between two floats – are used to sample zooplankton and microplastics in the “neuston layer”, or top few centimetres of the ocean.</p>
<p>The most advanced piece of technology we will use is the full depth submersible, it looks like an underwater pod that can go to extreme depths. This enables us to explore the steep slopes of the seamounts. This will allow us to film and record transects of the seabed and also take samples of specific organisms of interest with the manipulator arm. We expect to find cold water coral reefs and gardens of soft corals and sponges – all home to diverse life.</p>
<p>This expedition will take five weeks, operating 24 hours a day.</p>
<h2>Exploration sites</h2>
<p>We are exploring six seamounts that were prioritised by stakeholders – such as government ministries – from the Seychelles and Maldives. </p>
<p>Seamounts are interesting to explore because they are <a href="https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/facts/seamounts-biodiv.html">a hotspot</a> for marine life. This is because they rise up from the seafloor and push deep, cold nutrient rich waters up around and over them to the surface. Also, because they’re hard and sediment can’t settle on the slopes and vertical surfaces, organisms can attach to them. In the deep sea the seabed is mostly rock, covered by a thick layer of sediment. </p>
<p>In addition to this information, by visiting locations east and west of the Central Indian Ridge, we hope to investigate whether the ridge is a potential barrier to organisms moving. This is important to help the understanding of genetic connectivity across the region. Genetic connectivity can help us understand where isolated, and therefore more vulnerable, populations of organisms are.</p>
<h2>Useful data</h2>
<p>Seychelles is to announce its massive project <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47925193">to protect</a> 30% of their waters. Data from the expedition will help inform this process. This protection includes both no-take zones and the banning of some activities.</p>
<p>In the Maldives a process of marine spatial planning – ocean zoning to remove or include specific activities – has just started. Documenting life in the deep waters enables us to ground assumptions on life made at these depths, and could show areas that need future protection.</p>
<p>Finally some of the seamounts that we will visit are in the high seas. This area is beyond national jurisdiction and is currently receiving international attention because of a <a href="https://www.un.org/bbnj/">UN treaty</a> that’s being negotiated. Shining a spotlight on seamount life could help galvanise action by the parties and the new knowledge that comes from the data collected could help future management of the region.</p>
<p><em>Sheena Talma, a key scientist working on the mission, also contributed to this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Woodall receives funding from the Nekton Foundation</span></em></p>
Unless we know what is in the ocean, we can’t protect the biggest part of the planet.
Lucy Woodall, Senior Research Fellow, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/130251
2020-01-23T12:40:38Z
2020-01-23T12:40:38Z
Race to the bottom of the sea – the little known heroes of the 20th-century’s ‘inner space race’
<p>On January 23 1960, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh climbed into an undersea craft called Trieste and dived nearly 11 kilometres to the deepest point in the ocean – the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=867&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311108/original/file-20200121-117933-8qbxje.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1089&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Before the 20th-century’s space race even began, explorers were vying to be the first to reach the bottom of the ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jon Copley</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Down there, no sunlight can reach and the water is only ever a few degrees above freezing. The water pressure outside the walls of their vessel was 1,000 times greater than at the surface, but Piccard and Walsh overcame <a href="https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2012/04/17/where-is-challenger-deep/">these conditions</a> to enter history as the first Challenger Deep voyagers. </p>
<p>The first men to traverse these alien reaches of our world are much less well known than the first astronauts to walk on the Moon. Still, the race they led to the deepest point on Earth’s surface has profound implications for the modern world. The story of the earlier deep-sea pioneers whose achievements led to their dive is seldom told either, so who were the first “bathynauts” to visit the ocean depths?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-15-unexplored-places-81633">Anthill 15: Unexplored places</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Beebe and Barton’s bathysphere</h2>
<p>William Beebe and Otis Barton became the first bathynauts in the early 1930s, diving in the “bathysphere” that Barton designed. In common with later deep-sea vehicles, the bathysphere had a strong metal hull to resist the pressure of the deep ocean, allowing those inside to remain at normal atmospheric conditions and avoid the need to decompress like scuba divers. </p>
<p>Beebe and Barton dived to 435 metres in 1930, and in 1932 they broadcast live from 671 metres down to listeners of NBC and BBC radio across the US and Europe. Finally, in 1934 they reached 923 metres deep, as Beebe described in his book “<a href="https://archive.org/details/halfmiledown00beeb">Half Mile Down</a>”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TvLiG8P7uq0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Beebe and Barton’s colleague Gloria Hollister became the first female bathynaut, diving to 368 metres deep in the bathysphere in 1934. Hollister remained the world’s deepest diving woman for several decades, as naval traditions that excluded women from submarines spilled over to ocean exploration during the cold war. Meanwhile, Barton went on to design another craft called the “benthoscope” to venture deeper than the bathysphere, and on August 19 1949 he set a new depth record of 1,372 metres inside it.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SMIxiqZlQZQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The bathysphere and benthoscope both dangled on a cable from a ship on the surface, which limited their manoeuvrability. But Swiss physicist and inventor Auguste Piccard, who had soared to record-breaking altitudes in the pressurised capsule of a balloon in the early 1930s, realised that the principles of an airship could be adapted to create a new type of undersea vehicle. Instead of using a cable to lower and raise the craft, Piccard’s “bathyscaphe” used detachable ballast weights and a buoyancy tank filled with lighter-than-water petrol, similar to the helium-filled envelope of an airship.</p>
<p>The first bathyscaphe was named FNRS-2 after Belgium’s Fonds National de la Researche Scientifique (FNRS), who paid for it. The craft was ready for testing in 1948, but ran into difficulties after an unoccupied test dive to 1,400 metres.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/311584/original/file-20200123-162221-1xumlmo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bathynauts were the first to discover the strange and beautiful life that survives amid the frigid cold and extreme pressure of the deep sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NERC ChEsSo Consortium</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Piccard asked for more funds for another attempt, and his Belgian backers struck a deal with the French Navy, who were interested in developing the bathyscaphe further, eventually christening the rebuilt craft “FNRS-3”. But Piccard went his own way, working with his son Jacques to raise money from European industrialists for a new bathyscaphe, which they named the “Trieste”. On September 30 1953, father and son set a new depth record of 3,150 metres in the Trieste – and Auguste Piccard became the first person to explore the stratosphere and the deep ocean.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_O-8ia2POIA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>Back to the bottom</h2>
<p>The French Navy pipped the Piccard’s record on February 15 1954, reaching 4,050 metres with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0146631355900290">Georges Houot and Pierre Willm in the bathyscaphe FNRS-3</a>. Willm later designed the bathyscaphe Archimède, which made several dives into ocean trenches during the 1960s and took scientists to the undersea volcanic rift of the mid-ocean ridge for the first time in 1973.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zepZHCvOgh8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>The US Office for Naval Research chartered the Trieste for a series of science dives in the Mediterranean in 1957 – and the Piccards sold the Trieste to the US Navy in 1958, on the condition that Jacques would continue to operate it. The US Navy set the goal of using the Trieste to reach the deepest point in the ocean, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/diving-deeper-than-any-human-ever-dove/">which they achieved on January 23 1960</a> with Jacques and Lieutenant Don Walsh aboard.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VuxLf1hDGlA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Unlike astronauts, the race to the bottom of the ocean happened largely beyond the frenzied competition of cold war superpowers. It was instead driven mostly by private individuals, such as Beebe, Barton and the Piccards. After the record-setting plunge of 1960, deep-diving vehicles became a matter of national capability for science and strategic purposes.</p>
<p>But private citizens have taken up the torch for deep-sea exploration again. Hollywood director James Cameron <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17503395">returned to the Challenger Deep</a> in 2012, while billionaire Victor Vescovo and his expedition team dived there several times in a new vehicle in 2019.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LKXvdyNz6L8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Another kind of “inner space race” is happening today. Governments are trying to extend their territorial rights to ocean resources and stake a claim to future deep-sea mining sites in places beyond national boundaries. Thanks to remote specks of overseas territories such as the Pitcairn Islands, the UK has the world’s <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2017.00418/full">fifth largest “exclusive economic zone” of rights to ocean resources</a> – 27 times larger than the UK’s land area – along with licences from the United Nations to <a href="https://nerc.ukri.org/research/funded/programmes/highlight-topics/news/ao-round5/uksr-environmental-data-summary/">explore for manganese nodules in 133,539 square kilometres of the eastern Pacific</a>. </p>
<p>Six decades on from the first dive to the Challenger Deep, the ability of countries to reach anywhere in the deep ocean may be quietly redrawing the geopolitical map.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Copley receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. </span></em></p>
Almost a decade before the moon landings, humans reached the lowest point on Earth’s surface.
Jon Copley, Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration & Public Engagement (part-time), University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/121784
2019-09-08T12:26:39Z
2019-09-08T12:26:39Z
Getting to the bottom of things: Can mining the deep sea be sustainable?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291176/original/file-20190905-175668-e3f9ym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=76%2C36%2C1968%2C1483&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Deep-sea mining could open a new industrial frontier in the world's oceans. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/christian_gloor/39027979695">Christian Gloor/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is completely dark, just above freezing cold and the pressure is crushing: this is the deep-sea floor. Food is very scarce in this huge region, yet a great diversity of animals have adapted to exploit and recycle resources and thrive within it.</p>
<p>As technology enabled us to penetrate deeper into the ocean in the past 50 years, we discovered extraordinary ecosystems: <a href="https://www.whoi.edu/know-your-ocean/ocean-topics/seafloor-below/hydrothermal-vents/">hydrothermal vents support lush communities</a> of unique animals, seamounts foster coral and sponge forests and abyssal plains continue to yield biodiversity novelties.</p>
<p>Metal-rich ores were also discovered in these same environments — and in quantities that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/science/vast-deposits-of-gold-and-other-ores-lure-seabed-miners.html?auth=login-email">sparked commercial interest</a>. These deposits are now the targets for exploitation by mining companies both within and beyond national waters.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291329/original/file-20190906-175700-f934u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Minerals and carbon dioxide escape from the Earth’s crust into an ocean at this deep-sea vent.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">NOAA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada is a member of the International Seabed Authority, which is <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/mining-code">developing mineral exploitation regulations for the deep sea</a>. It shares responsibility in the potential environmental impacts of the deep-sea mining industry.</p>
<p>Our research teams study deep-sea ecosystems in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. We also engage in marine conservation efforts and are strong advocates for scientific input for informed decision making. To this end, we work with an international team of scientists, the <a href="https://www.dosi-project.org/">Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative</a>, to provide advice to those involved in developing the environmental regulations for the deep-sea mining code.</p>
<h2>The mineral resources</h2>
<p>Deep-sea mining is targeting three types of deposits all of which are formed over thousands to millions of years. Polymetallic nodules — potato-sized structures rich in manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt, and containing platinum and tellurium — form at depths of 4,000-6,000 metres, as metals precipitate from seawater. At hydrothermal vents, black smokers discharge hot (350 C), metal-rich fluids that can accumulate to form deposits containing copper and often gold, silver, zinc and lead. Crusts form on the slopes of some seamounts that are rich in cobalt, manganese, iron, copper, nickel and platinum.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230074/original/file-20180731-136676-1a2xpx9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pavement of manganese nodules near the Hawaiian islands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need such metals for everything from cell phones to aircraft engines. Indeed, any move to alternative energy sources must consider metal supply and the security of the supply chain. A current challenge for many countries is the <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/our-research/institute-sustainable-futures/our-research/resource-futures/responsible-minerals-for-renewable-energy">negotiation of those supplies from terrestrial sources</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/deep-sea-mining-could-help-develop-mass-solar-energy-is-it-worth-the-risk-76500">Deep sea mining could help develop mass solar energy – is it worth the risk?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/03/deep-sea-mining-to-turn-oceans-into-new-industrial-frontier">Deep-sea mining has not begun yet</a> on a commercial scale, but companies are developing the required technologies. The machines will collect the nodules or grind the hot vent and seamount deposits, and lift the slurry to vessel at the ocean surface. </p>
<p>The impact goes beyond the physical removal of the sea floor. Ships would release large plumes of particles or dump waste material into the ocean, which could have toxic effects on animals, and produce light and noise pollution.</p>
<h2>What’s at stake</h2>
<p>Scientists have explored less than one per cent of the deep sea. We know neither the extent of the habitats targeted by mining nor how the ecosystems will respond to it. Most of the species that live on the seafloor <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.09.036">remain unknown to science</a>, as do their lifestyles, interactions and ecological roles. Developing strategies to protect them is a major challenge.</p>
<p>We do know that many deep-sea species are particularly vulnerable to the destruction of habitat by deep-sea mining. They grow slowly, live for decades or even centuries and reproduce late in life. If ecosystems are destroyed, they take a long time to recover; recent studies found that ecosystems on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean had <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1038/srep26808">not recovered from experimental nodule mining after nearly 30 years</a>. </p>
<p>The deep ocean provides us with many services, including storing carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere. It also contains a large repository of genetic material of potential value. Benefits reaped from this material belong to humankind rather to a particular company or nation. However, the regulation, management and benefit sharing of the genetic resources are still under debate.</p>
<p>Deep-sea mining will impact these remote, poorly known, resource-rich ecosystems in ways that we cannot yet predict. This lack of knowledge is a major impediment for developing strategies for sustainable use and conservation of deep-sea habitats.</p>
<h2>Environmental leadership</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.isa.org.jm/">International Seabed Authority</a> (ISA) is an organization of member states that have signed the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/theme/marine-and-polar/our-work/international-ocean-governance/unclos">UN Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)</a>. The ISA is writing the mining code to regulate mineral exploitation in the international seabed area. ISA has signed 29 contracts with mining companies (each with state backing) to explore vast areas of the seabed, covering a total of 1.3 million square kilometres (an area greater than Ontario).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230076/original/file-20180731-136661-si2do4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A subsea crawler like this one designed by Royal IHC Mining would harvest polymetallic nodules from the sea floor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Royal IHC)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a UNCLOS signatory, Canada has an opportunity and indeed responsibility to provide meaningful feedback on the mining code. Scientists, managers, lawyers and others at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and Natural Resources Canada have the expertise to participate in the national delegation to the ISA meetings. </p>
<p>These Canadian government agencies have long considered topics such as ecosystem-based management, environmental impact assessments, marine protected areas and the “polluter pays” approach that are being hotly debated at the ISA. Canada’s experience in legislating and implementing some of these topics can inform the process and provide background and context in the decision-making. </p>
<p>Canada’s aspiring goals of global environmental leadership beyond our own continental shelf should provide the incentive to ensure that if deep-sea mining proceeds, it is in an environmentally sustainable manner.</p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Metaxas receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Verena Tunnicliffe receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada</span></em></p>
Companies are developing technologies to mine the deep sea, but environmental regulations have yet to be finalized.
Anna Metaxas, Professor, Department of Oceanography, Dalhousie University
Verena Tunnicliffe, Professor, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/116830
2019-06-03T05:42:42Z
2019-06-03T05:42:42Z
Curious Kids: how would the disappearance of anglerfish affect our environment?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276260/original/file-20190524-187176-2h2pul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anglerfish have an enlarged fin overhanging their eyes and their mouth that acts as a lure – much like bait on a fisherman's line.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children. Send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au. You might also like the podcast <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/kidslisten/imagine-this/">Imagine This</a>, a co-production between ABC KIDS listen and The Conversation, based on Curious Kids.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How would the disappearance of anglerfish affect our environment? - Bella, age 6, Sydney.</strong> </p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>As I am sure you know, anglerfish live deep in the ocean. The females have an enlarged fin overhanging their eyes and their mouth that acts as a lure – much like bait on a fishing line - and this explains their name. (“Angling” is a method of fishing.)</p>
<p>The fact is we understand very little about the deep sea and how its inhabitants, including anglerfish, will respond to change. In fact, more people have walked on the Moon than have been to the bottom of the ocean. </p>
<p>But I will do my best to answer your question.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-do-creatures-living-in-the-deep-sea-stay-alive-given-the-pressure-111940">Curious Kids: how do creatures living in the deep sea stay alive given the pressure?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The food web</h2>
<p>Close your eyes and imagine a spider’s web. All parts of it are connected, and if a bug gets tangled in one part, it can cause a completely different part of the web to wobble or break.</p>
<p>It helps to remember that all species are interconnected via something called the “food web”. The food web is not a real web like a spider’s web. It’s just a way of thinking about how species are connected to each other. Basically, the food web tells us who eats whom. </p>
<p>If you make a change to one part of the food web, that can have an ripple effect that can cause changes on another part of the web. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=831&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276274/original/file-20190524-187165-165hyq6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Here’s an example of a food web (not every animal is included in this one, but you get the idea).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Less of one animal can mean more of another</h2>
<p>Anglerfish usually eat small fish, as well as relatives of shrimp. </p>
<p>It is likely that if all the anglerfish in the ocean disappeared, their prey would explode in number and another predator would then “step in” to replace them.</p>
<p>And any species that likes to eat the anglerfish would have to start eating another species instead – or risk dying out. </p>
<p>At the height of the whaling industry, about 100 years ago, whales nearly disappeared. That meant that the number of krill (the tiny animals that whales eat) exploded, providing a feast for other animals that also eat krill – such as seals. That is how a food web works. </p>
<h2>Weird and wonderful</h2>
<p>There are around 200 different types of anglerfish. Although one giant species grows to over a metre, most anglerfish are tiny – less than 10cm long.</p>
<p>Only female anglerfish have lures. These lures often glow in the dark, thanks to the bio-luminescent bacteria inside them, which presents a tempting (but fake) meal to their unsuspecting prey.</p>
<p>Anglerfish don’t form large schools like many other fish and this represents a problem for them – they need to find a mate. The tiny males have found a solution: if they do happen to find a female, they grasp onto her with their mouths and never let go. </p>
<p>These males tap into the females’ blood stream and never have to eat again. Scientists call this behaviour parasitic. Sometimes more than one male can be attached to a single female. Imagine someone’s father being 100 times smaller than their mother and being permanently attached to her. </p>
<p>Nature is truly weird and wonderful.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276276/original/file-20190524-187169-13wy3zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This picture shows the larger female has two smaller parasitic males attached to her body to fertilise her eggs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-was-the-ocean-formed-where-did-all-the-water-come-from-98382">Curious Kids: How was the ocean formed? Where did all the water come from?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Threats</h2>
<p>Among the biggest problems for a lot of fish species are disease and overfishing by humans. But it’s highly unlikely that these threats could wipe out anglerfish.</p>
<p>Anglerfish are found between 300 and several thousand metres of water. At this depth, it is constantly dark and the water is cold. </p>
<p>As they live in such deep water and do not form schools, they are not targeted by fishermen, a common threat for many shallow water fish. </p>
<p>And anglerfish are so widely spread across the world’s oceans that any disease is highly unlikely to spread among them.</p>
<p>There is one threat that might affect angler fish – the threat of global warming. Temperatures in the deep ocean are very stable, they simply don’t change much.</p>
<p>Anglerfish live their entire lives at depth with near constant temperatures; hence even small shifts in temperature may affect them. It remains unclear whether increasing temperatures really will threaten angler fish – only time will tell.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to us. You can:</em></p>
<p><em>* Email your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au
* Tell us on Twitter by tagging @ConversationEDU with the hashtag #curiouskids, or
* Tell us on Facebook</em>
_</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168011/original/file-20170505-21620-huq4lj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Please tell us your name, age and which city you live in. We won’t be able to answer every question but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Davis receives funding from the Sea World Research and Rescue Foundation Inc (SWRRFI) along with the University of Wollongong's Global Challenges Program. He is member of the Australian Marine Science Association and the Malacological Society of Australasia.</span></em></p>
We know very little about the deep sea and how its inhabitants, including anglerfish, will respond to change. In fact, more people have walked on the Moon than have been to the bottom of the ocean.
Andy Davis, Director - Institute for Conservation Biology and Environmental Management, University of Wollongong
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/111940
2019-03-01T14:35:47Z
2019-03-01T14:35:47Z
Curious Kids: how do creatures living in the deep sea stay alive given the pressure?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259958/original/file-20190220-148536-4io247.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1583%2C3350%2C2306&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Angler fish haunt the deep seas. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/angler-fish-large-mouth-teeth-parasitic-1039006918?src=GDaGWcpaK5p9cJOKgEPIJw-1-7">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series by <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk">The Conversation</a>, which gives children of all ages the chance to have their questions about the world answered by experts. All questions are welcome: you or an adult can send them – along with your name, age and town or city where you live – to curiouskids@theconversation.com. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we’ll do our best.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>How do creatures living in the deep sea stay alive with the pressure? – Torben, age eight, Sussex, UK.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hi Torben, </p>
<p>This is a great question – thank you so much for asking it. The deep sea is a very difficult place to live. There is no light, it’s cold, there’s not much oxygen and little food – and, as you rightly point out, the creatures that live there have to deal with the enormous pressure of the water above. </p>
<p>In the deepest part of the Atlantic, the pressure can be 840 bars – that’s about 840 times the pressure we experience at sea level. At Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the very deepest part of all the world’s oceans – the pressure may be <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10872-005-0001-y">1,000 bars or more</a>. </p>
<p>But the creatures that live in the deepest parts of the ocean have special features, which help them deal with these tough conditions – including the crushing pressure. </p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>When you dive to the bottom of a deep swimming pool, you might start getting a painful or unpleasant feeling in your ears and sinuses. This is because they contain air: that feeling comes from the air sacs in your body being squashed by the pressure of the water. </p>
<p>Fish living closer to the surface of the ocean may have a swim bladder – that’s a large organ with air in it, which helps them float up or sink down in the water. Deep sea fish don’t have these air sacs in their bodies, which means they don’t get crushed. </p>
<p>The deepest dwelling species of fish, called the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-deepest-dwelling-fish-in-the-sea-is-small-pink-and-delicate-88991">hadal snailfish</a>, can be found at depths of <a href="http://www.washington.edu/news/2017/11/28/theres-a-deeper-fish-in-the-sea/">about 8,200m</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Fxkun3DpBno?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But having a body with no air cavities will only get you so far, since high pressure can also destroy the very structure of molecules – the tiny building blocks that make up all matter. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-is-everything-really-made-of-molecules-109145">Curious Kids: is everything really made of molecules?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To help with this, deep sea creatures have “piezolytes” – small, organic molecules which have only <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28803626">recently been discovered</a>. These piezolytes stop the other molecules in the creatures’ bodies, such as membranes and proteins, from being crushed by the pressure (though we’re not exactly sure how, yet). </p>
<p>Another interesting thing about piezolytes is that they give fish their “fishy” smell. Shallow water species have piezolytes too, but deep sea species have many more – so deep water species would smell much more fishy. </p>
<p>This molecule is only effective up to certain depths though; as the water gets deeper, the pressure becomes too much, even for snailfish. Tiny organisms called microbes have been recovered from the very bottom of the Mariana Trench, and they have peizolytes to help protect them, too. </p>
<h2>Deep divers</h2>
<p>While some animals live full time in the deep sea, others just visit. Species such as Cuvier’s beaked whale commute between the surface of the water, to breathe, and depths of over 2,000m, to feed. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kLXKjF96snk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>These whales breathe air, but their lungs are collapsible, so they don’t get crushed when the whales dive into the deep sea for almost two hours at a time. </p>
<p>When diving, these whales store the oxygen from the air they breathe in their blood and muscles. They can do this because they have higher levels of haemoglobin and myoglobin molecules – which are used to store oxygen – than other whale species.</p>
<p>Cuvier’s beaked whales can also reduce their heart rate and temporarily stop the blood flowing to certain parts of the body, which helps the oxygen to last longer. </p>
<p>So, there are a few different ways creatures can survive in the deep sea, depending on whether they are just visiting, or live there all the time. </p>
<p>There’s one last thing to think about: it’s very difficult for scientists to study deep sea animals, as they tend to die when they are brought to the surface – so there might be many other remarkable features we don’t yet know about. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>More <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/curious-kids-36782?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Curious Kids</a> articles, written by academic experts:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-how-does-heat-travel-through-space-if-space-is-a-vacuum-111889?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">How does heat travel through space if space is a vacuum? – Katerina, age ten, Norwich, UK.</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-makes-a-shooting-star-fall-111068?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">What makes a shooting star fall? - Katelyn, age seven, Adelaide, Australia.</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-what-causes-the-northern-lights-111573?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">What causes the northern lights? – Ffion, age 6.75, Pembrokeshire, UK.</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Lacey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The pressure in the deepest part of the ocean can be 1,000 times greater than the pressure we experience at sea level – but creatures that live and visit there have some very special features.
Claire Lacey, PhD Candidate in Biology, University of St Andrews
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/103003
2018-09-11T13:45:37Z
2018-09-11T13:45:37Z
Snailfish: how we found a new species in one of the ocean’s deepest places
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235841/original/file-20180911-144461-140bl6z.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C994%2C515&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Inside a snailfish.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newcastle University / Natural History Museum, London</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From an unmanned submersible, protected by a casing of stainless steel almost an inch thick and a window made from super strong sapphire crystal, we can observe the life that thrives at our planet’s most extreme and darkest depths. Thanks to technology and sheer material strength, we can temporarily trespass into this high pressure environment. But in stark contrast to the robust deep sea imaging equipment we rely on, the creatures our camera records look extremely fragile. </p>
<p>Four-and-a-half miles beneath our research vessel, which was floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean, we captured footage of several previously undiscovered species of hadal snailfish. With delicate fins and transparent, gelatinous bodies, they are some of this environment’s most <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0967063716300656?via%3Dihub">enigmatic inhabitants</a>, fish that – at first glance – look like they should be incapable of surviving under such enormous pressures. And yet, it appears they are thriving in this strange world.</p>
<p>In spring, a team of 40 scientists from 17 different nations conducted an expedition to the Atacama Trench, which runs along the west coast of South America. We were there to find a particular snailfish. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235810/original/file-20180911-144461-n5s8e3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Atacama trench is the dark blue line off the coast of Chile and Peru.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/image/2minsurface/1350/00N090W.jpg">NOAA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a previous expedition, our principal investigator (Alan Jamieson) had <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/10/photogalleries/101014-deep-fish-seen-snailfish-eel-ocean-pictures/">photographed a snailfish with long, wing-like fins</a> at a depth of 7,000 metres. Only one species, <a href="http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Notoliparis-antonbruuni.html"><em>Notoliparis antonbruuni</em></a> was known to inhabit this area at such a depth. It had been described from a single specimen, so badly damaged that we are not able to use it to identify our images of living animals. We wanted to find this elusive winged snailfish again to learn more about it and observe it in its natural habitat.</p>
<p>These hadal snailfish tend to live at depths between 7,000 and 8,200 metres (“hadal” simply means anywhere below 6,000 metres), but their apparent rarity is perhaps misunderstood. Because of their extreme habitat (at least for humans), they are difficult to observe rather than actually “rare” as we know it. And with the right equipment and opportunity, we were confident, after ten years of study, that we knew where and how to find them. </p>
<p>The Atacama Trench is part of the Peru-Chile subduction zone, a large 590,000 square kilometre area where one tectonic plate is being forced under another and the ocean floor quickly plunges to more than 8,000 metres. Its volume is almost the same as the neighbouring Andes mountain range, which the tectonic subduction zone also creates, and exploring it is no easy feat.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=324&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235830/original/file-20180911-144473-q5ur5i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Deep dive.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A trio of snailfish</h2>
<p>We deployed our freefalling cameras 27 times – from the <em>relative</em> shallows at 2,500 metres to the trench’s deepest point, Richard’s Deep, at just over 8,000 metres. This enabled us to take more than 100 hours of video and 11,000 photographs at the seabed – and the results did not disappoint. The snailfish we were looking for made an appearance – and it wasn’t alone. Two other previously unknown hadal snailfish species were present in the footage. In fact, all three species appeared in the same shot on one occasion. Out of necessity, they were given quick, stand-in names: we called them the “purple”, the “pink” and the “blue” Atacama snailfishes.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=155&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235816/original/file-20180911-144458-58n4o4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=194&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Left to right: purple, pink and blue.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The “blue” appeared to be the “winged” species Jamieson had recorded previously. Its long trailing fins and prominent snout resembled the <a href="https://youtu.be/6rU3sSDII7A">Ethereal snailfish</a> we had recorded on another expedition to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-worlds-deepest-fish-in-the-mariana-trench-and-why-we-must-keep-exploring-35743">Mariana Trench</a>, far away on the other side of the Pacific. </p>
<p>The “pink” species, meanwhile, was more robust and was closer in appearance to the <a href="http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4358.1.7">Mariana snailfish (<em>Pseudoliparis swirei</em>)</a> that we described in 2017 and which also inhabits the Mariana Trench. To see these two species – with such different body plans – sharing a trench again got us thinking: they must be doing something different to one another down there to both carve themselves a niche.</p>
<p>The third species, a small purple fish, looked more like the snailfish we would expect to see on the shallower abyssal plains – at a depth of around 3,500 metres. But one of these purple snailfish, just 9cm long, followed its invertebrate prey into one of our traps. This small fragile fish is currently the only physical specimen of the new species and should eventually allow us to give it a formal scientific name. And while we much prefer our video of the living animal, only a physical specimen can be deposited in a museum and used to formally describe a new species.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235817/original/file-20180911-144461-1pohi28.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meet the specimen. It died due to warm temperatures and low pressure long before it reached the surface.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preservation</h2>
<p>Once on the surface, we photographed this specimen while it was suspended in chilled seawater – its body is simply too fragile to support itself in air and we didn’t want it to suffer the same fate as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/sep/12/blobfish-world-ugliest-animal">poor blobfish</a>, which, for the record, really aren’t that sad-looking (their jelly-like bodies just collapse when exposed at the surface).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=297&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/235821/original/file-20180911-144470-11o5448.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blobfish aren’t sad at all in their natural habitat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over the following months, we then put the specimen through several stages of preservation to avoid shrinking its largely gelatinous body. So that scientists (and the interested public) don’t have to fight over access to a single, fragile specimen, it was also CT scanned at the <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/iac">Natural History Museum, London</a>, creating a detailed 3D digital model of it, inside and out. Such digital back ups are gaining traction in science – take the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/news/2016/07/19/uw-professor-is-digitizing-every-fish-species-in-the-world/">Scan All Fishes</a> project, for example. And disasters like the recent fire at <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/09/brazil-rio-de-janeiro-museum-fire/569299/">Brazil’s National Museum</a>, which will have wiped out many unique specimens, also show why they are so important.</p>
<p>But what have we discovered about these mysterious creatures? First, as fish approach the absolute extremes of the environmental conditions that they can cope with, they do not simply eke out an existence but thrive. It is also emerging that some trenches support not only a single specialist species but multiple species with body plans that hint at different lifestyles within the trench. </p>
<p>Second, the snailfish family (<em>Liparidae</em>) is not only the absolute winner of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-worlds-deepest-fish-in-the-mariana-trench-and-why-we-must-keep-exploring-35743">deepest fish award</a> (having been found in multiple other trenches), but species are living in trenches that at times are over 10,000km apart and entirely isolated from one another. Incredibly, snailfish exist at these extreme depths, wherever these extreme depths are, and in numbers never thought possible.</p>
<p>And the snailfish is just one story that emerged from our expedition. Over the coming months, we will continue to process the huge amount of data we collected, the most we have ever gathered on a single voyage. Our assessment of the large mobile animals we filmed will feed into the <a href="https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/institutter_centre/i_biologi/forskning/forskningsprojekter/benthic+diagenesis+and+microbiology+of+hadal+trenches/project/voyage+march+2018">project’s larger goal</a> to understand the biological and chemical processes within the trench as a whole.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103003/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The expedition to the Atacama Trench was funded by BMBF (for ship time) and the ERC project HADES (European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant-Nr. 669947; Benthic diagenesis and microbiology of hadal trenches”), the University of Southern Denmark and Max Planck Society and will be featured as part of the 2018 Challenger Conference being held at Newcastle University September 10-14.</span></em></p>
These ‘snailfish’ look too fragile to exist several miles below the waves.
Thomas Linley, Research Associate, Marine Ecology, Newcastle University
Alan Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/100472
2018-07-27T11:57:19Z
2018-07-27T11:57:19Z
What is bioluminescence and how is it used by humans and in nature?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/229595/original/file-20180727-106521-175sn37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/aurora-over-bioluminescence-1070562482">james_stone76/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>The sea was luminous in specks and in the wake of the vessel, of a uniform slightly milky colour. When the water was put into a bottle, it gave out sparks… </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the first entry in Charles Darwin’s zoological notebook, written while he was aboard the Beagle just off the coast of Tenerife, on January 6, 1832. What Darwin saw was bioluminescent sea creatures, flickering light in response to physical disruption. </p>
<p>Bioluminescence, the production and emission of light by living organisms, became a <a href="http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter6.html">sticking point for Darwin</a>. He struggled to explain why this phenomenon appeared in separate species in a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bio.2429">seemingly random fashion</a>. We now know, however, that bioluminescence has evolved independently <a href="https://www.amnh.org/about-the-museum/press-center/bioluminescence-evolved-at-least-29-times-in-marine-fishes">at least 40 times</a> on land and in the sea. </p>
<p>Darwin was not the first to note bioluminescence. Greek philosopher Aristotle observed that bioluminescence is a type of “cold” light – in that it does not produce heat – in around 350 BC. Researchers have since found that this form of <a href="https://www.scienceinschool.org/2011/issue19/chemiluminescence">chemiluminescence</a>, produces blue-green light as a result of the oxidation of a compound called luciferin (the “light-bringer”) by an enzyme called luciferase. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BlQz508Hi1O","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>More than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45750">75% of deep-sea creatures</a> are estimated to produce their own light. The anglerfish, for example, uses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXl8F-eIoiM">bioluminescent lures</a>, resembling fishing rods, to attract prey towards their large mouths. Intriguingly, the anglerfish’s light is actually produced by <em>Photobacterium</em>, a bacterium that lives in symbiosis with the fish inside its esca (lure). </p>
<p>The nocturnal Hawaiian bobtail squid – <em>Euprymna scolopes</em> – which lives in shallow waters, <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/microbiology-here-s-looking-at-you-squid-1.16698">also has a symbiotic relationship</a> with a bioluminescent bacterium, <em>Aliivibrio fischeri</em>. At night, these bacteria begin to glow, and the squid uses their light to camouflage itself against the night sky. This counter-illumination strategy is akin to an invisibility cloak. </p>
<p>At dawn, the squid expels around 95% of the glowing bacteria from its light organ, and supplies the remaining 5% with enough nutrients to grow throughout the day. A critical mass is reached once again by dusk, at which point <a href="http://www.mbio.ncsu.edu/MJC/old/20052006/pan_review.pdf">the light switches on</a>.</p>
<p>It was the study of this bacterium that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5473898">led to the discovery</a> of a microbiological phenomena called “quorum sensing”. This “chemical language” is used by <em>Aliivibrio fischeri</em> to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWurAmtf78">count its neighbours</a>. Doing this ensures that no energy is wasted in turning bioluminescent genes on before there are enough cells present in the squid’s light organ (typically around 10m cells per millilitre).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/W0pO6R52uYY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Closer to the sea surface, bioluminescence is commonly generated by a plankton called <em>Noctiluca scintillans</em>, known as “sea sparkle”. This microscopic organism produces flashes of light in response to physical disturbances as waves break on the shore, or when a stone is thrown into the bloom. The bioluminescent reaction in response to stimulus is termed the “burglar alarm” effect. When under attack by a predator, the collective flash of light startles the attacker and gives away its position, alerting higher predators of its whereabouts. </p>
<h2>Bioluminescence and humans</h2>
<p>Throughout history, humans have devised ingenious ways of using bioluminescence to their advantage. Glowing fungi have been used by tribes to <a href="http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150709-indias-mysterious-glowing-forests">light the way through dense jungles</a>, for example, while fireflies were <a href="https://www.hsimagazine.com/article/illumination-evolution">used by miners</a> as an early safety lamp. Perhaps inspired by these applications, researchers are now again turning to bioluminescence as a <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b04369">potential form of green energy</a>. In the not so distant future, our traditional street lamps may be replaced by glowing trees and buildings. </p>
<p>Today, bioluminescence from <em>Aliivibrio fischeri</em> is <a href="https://www.modernwater.com/pdf/MW_Factsheet_MicroM500.pdf">used to monitor water toxicity</a>. When exposed to pollutants, light output from the bacterial culture decreases, signalling the possible presence of a contaminant. </p>
<p>Bioluminescence has even played a part in warfare. Bioluminescent organisms <a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a15856465/the-us-and-soviet-union-once-investigated-bioluminescence-as-a-way-to-track-submarines/">aided in the sinking</a> of the last German U-boat during World War One, in November 1918. The submarine is reported to have sailed through a bioluminescent bloom, leaving a glowing wake which was tracked by the allies. </p>
<p>It has had a protective role too. In the aftermath of one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War, <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-shiloh">at Shiloh</a>, the wounds of some of the injured soldiers began to glow. These glowing wounds healed more quickly and cleanly, and the phenomenon became known as “Angel’s Glow”. The <a href="https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/features/photorhabdus-luminescens-angels-glow">glow was probably produced by</a> <em>Photorhabdus luminescens</em>, a soil-dwelling bacterium which releases antimicrobial compounds and so protected the soldiers from infection. </p>
<p>It is perhaps the medical applications of bioluminescence that have attracted the most excitement. In 2008, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1066">awarded for the discovery</a> and development of green fluorescent protein (GFP). GFP is found naturally in the crystal jellyfish <em>Aequorea victoria</em>, which, unlike the bioluminescence mechanism described so far, is fluorescent. This means that the protein needs to be excited by blue light before emitting its characteristic green light. Since its discovery, GFP has been genetically inserted into various cell types and even animals <a href="https://theconversation.com/fluorescent-proteins-light-up-science-by-making-the-invisible-visible-39272">to shed light on</a> important aspects of cell biology and disease dynamics. </p>
<p>The evolutionary process that culminated in bioluminescence may have taken million of years, but its scientific applications continue to revolutionise our modern world. Remember that, the next time you see the sea sparkle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catrin Williams receives funding from a Sêr Cymru II Fellowship part-funded by the European regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government . </span></em></p>
Harnessing the awe-inspiring living light and power of bioluminescent organisms could change the human world.
Catrin F. Williams, Research Fellow, Cardiff University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/84734
2017-11-09T11:24:43Z
2017-11-09T11:24:43Z
Unless we regain our historic awe of the deep ocean, it will be plundered
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193598/original/file-20171107-1017-1vsenhn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC Blue Planet</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the memorable second instalment of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04tjbtx">Blue Planet II</a>, we are offered glimpses of an unfamiliar world – the deep ocean. The episode places an unusual emphasis on its own construction: glimpses of the deep sea and its inhabitants are interspersed with shots of the technology – a manned submersible – that brought us these astonishing images. It is very unusual and extremely challenging, we are given to understand, for a human to enter and interact with this unfamiliar world.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/nov/06/blue-planet-ii-years-most-watched-tv-show-david-attenborough">most watched</a> programme of 2017 in the UK, Blue Planet II provides the opportunity to revisit questions that have long occupied us. To whom does the sea belong? Should humans enter its depths? These questions are perhaps especially urgent today, when <a href="http://www.nautilusminerals.com/IRM/content/default.aspx">Nautilus Minerals</a>, a mining company registered in Vancouver, has been granted a license to extract gold and copper from the seafloor off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Though the company has suffered some setbacks, mining is still scheduled to begin in <a href="https://www.seeker.com/worlds-first-deep-sea-mining-venture-set-to-launch-in-2019-2327856967.html">2019</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193603/original/file-20171107-1041-1l1olkz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Blue Planet’s team explore the deep.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Blue Planet</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This marks a new era in our interaction with the oceans. For a long time in Western culture, to go to sea at all was to transgress. In <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Text/SenecaMedea.html">Seneca’s Medea</a>, the chorus blames advances in navigation for having brought the Golden Age to an end, while for more than one Mediterranean culture to travel through the Straits of Gibraltar and into the wide Atlantic was considered unwisely to tempt divine forces. The vast seas were associated with knowledge that humankind was better off without – another version, if you will, of the apple in the garden.</p>
<p>If to travel horizontally across the sea was to trespass, then to travel vertically into its depths was to redouble the indiscretion. In his 17th-century poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50697/vanity-i">Vanitie (I)</a>, George Herbert writes of a diver seeking out a “pearl” which “God did hide | On purpose from the ventrous wretch”. </p>
<p>In Herbert’s imagination, the deep sea is off limits, containing tempting objects whose attainment will damage us. Something like this vision of the deep resurfaces more than 300 years later in one of the most startling passages of Thomas Mann’s novel <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/book-of-a-lifetime-doktor-faustus-by-thomas-mann-1778006.html">Doctor Faustus</a> (1947), as a trip underwater in a diving bell figures forth the protagonist’s desire for occult, ungodly knowledge.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193605/original/file-20171107-1011-172act0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An early diving bell used by 16th century divers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diving_bell_noaa.jpg">National Undersearch Research Program (NURP)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mann’s deep sea is a symbolic space, but his reference to a diving bell gestures towards the technological advances that have taken humans and their tools into the material deep. Our whale-lines and fathom-lines have long groped into the oceans’ dark reaches, while more recently deep-sea cables, submarines and offshore rigs have penetrated their secrets. Somewhat paradoxically, it may be that our day-to-day involvement in the oceans means that they no longer sit so prominently on our cultural radar: we have demystified the deep, and stripped it of its imaginative power.</p>
<p>But at the same time, technological advances in shipping and travel mean that our culture is one of “<a href="http://www.bmcf.org.uk/2011/11/22/finding-a-cure-for-sea-blindness/">sea-blindness</a>”: even while writing by the light provided by oil extracted from the ocean floor, using communications provided by deep-sea cables, or arguing over the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13442735">renewal of Trident</a>, we perhaps struggle to believe that we, as humans, are linked to the oceans and their black depths. <a href="http://www.frontiersin.org/files/Articles/128166/fmars-02-00003-HTML/image_m/fmars-02-00003-g002.jpg">This wine bottle</a>, found lying on the sea bed in the remote Atlantic, is to most of us an uncanny object: a familiar entity in an alien world, it combines the homely with the unhomely.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193804/original/file-20171108-14205-65gqu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wine bottle found in the deep North Atlantic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Robinson, University of Bristol, and the Natural Environment Research Council. Expedition JC094 was funded by the European Research Council.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Deep trouble</h2>
<p>For this reason, the activities planned by Nautilus Minerals have the whiff of science fiction. The company’s very name recalls that of the underwater craft of Jules Verne’s adventure novel <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/164">Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas</a> (1870), perhaps the most famous literary text set in the deep oceans. </p>
<p>But mining the deep is no longer a fantasy, and its practice is potentially devastating. As the <a href="http://www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/wp-content/uploads/accountabilityZERO_web.pdf">Deep Sea Mining Campaign</a> points out, the mineral deposits targeted by Nautilus gather around hydrothermal vents, the astonishing structures which featured heavily in the second episode of Blue Planet II. These vents support unique ecosystems which, if the mining goes ahead, are likely to be destroyed before we even begin to understand them. (Notice the total lack of aquatic life in Nautilus’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OElwEL-pnDI">corporate video</a>: they might as well be drilling on the moon.) The campaigners against deep sea mining also insist – sounding not unlike George Herbert – that we don’t need the minerals located at the bottom of the sea: that the reasons for wrenching them from the deep are at best suspect.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OElwEL-pnDI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>So should we be leaving the deep sea well alone? Sadly, it is rather too late for that. Our underwater cameras transmit images of tangled fishing gear, cables and bottles strewn on the seafloor, and we find specimens of deep sea animals thousands of metres deep and hundreds of kilometres away from land with <a href="http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmars.2015.00003/full">plastic fibres</a> in their guts and skeletons. </p>
<p>It seems almost inevitable that deep sea mining will open a new and substantial chapter on humanity’s relationship with the oceans. Mining new resources is still perceived to be more economically viable than recycling; as natural resources become scarcer, the ocean bed will almost certainly become of interest to global corporations with the capacity to explore and mine it – and to governments that stand to benefit from these activities. These governments are also likely to compete with one another for ownership of parts of the global ocean currently in dispute, such as the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/outofasia/2017/08/22/making-sense-of-the-south-china-sea-dispute/#67363f271c3b">South China Sea</a> and the <a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/this-map-shows-all-country-s-claims-on-the-arctic-seafloor">Arctic</a>. The question is perhaps not if the deep sea will be exploited, but how and by whom. So what is to be done? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193604/original/file-20171107-1046-lf2z8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A feather star in the deep waters of the Antarctic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC NHU</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than declaring the deep sea off-limits, we think our best course of action is to regain our fascination with it. We may have a toe-hold within the oceans; but, as any marine scientist will tell you, the deep still harbours unimaginable secrets. The onus is on both scientists and those working in what has been dubbed the “<a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/mayjune/feature/the-blue-humanities">blue humanities</a>” to translate, to a wider public, the sense of excitement to be found in exploring this element. Then, perhaps, we can prevent the deep ocean from becoming yet another commodity to be mined – or, at least, we can ensure that such mining is responsible and that it takes place under proper scrutiny.</p>
<p>The sea, and especially the deep sea, will never be “ours” in the way that tracts of land become cities, or even in the way rivers become avenues of commerce. This is one of its great attractions, and is why it is so easy to sit back and view the deep sea with awed detachment when watching Blue Planet II. But we cannot afford to pretend that it lies entirely beyond our sphere of activity. Only by expressing our humility before it, perhaps, can we save it from ruthless exploitation; only by acknowledging and celebrating our ignorance of it can we protect it from the devastation that our technological advances have made possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84734/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Hendry has received funding for deep-sea research (non-commercial) from the European Research Council (starter Grant 678371 - ICY-LAB).
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurence Publicover does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It seems almost inevitable that deep sea mining will open a new and substantial chapter of humanity’s relationship with the oceans.
Laurence Publicover, Lecturer in English, University of Bristol
Katharine Hendry, Reader in Geochemistry, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/86869
2017-11-05T21:35:20Z
2017-11-05T21:35:20Z
I explored the Antarctic deep seas for Blue Planet II – and it was like going back 350 million years
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193216/original/file-20171103-1027-58xisr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luis Lamar / BBC NHU</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“It has always been our ambition to get inside that white space, and now we are there the space can no longer be blank,” wrote the polar explorer Captain Scott, on crossing the 80th parallel of the Antarctic continent for the first time in 1902. Fast-forward more than a century – and the deep ocean floor around Antarctica still offers a “white space”, beyond the reach of scuba divers, only partially mapped in detail by sonar from ships and seldom surveyed by robotic vehicles.</p>
<p>So I jumped at the chance to join a team from the BBC on an expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula for Blue Planet II, to help them as a scientific guide. Thanks to the crew of the research ship Alucia, we dived in minisubmarines to 1km deep in the Antarctic for the first time. And while we didn’t face anything like the physical hardships endured by early polar explorers on land, those dives did give us the opportunity for some unique science.</p>
<p>The deep ocean around Antarctica is a special place for several reasons. Because Antarctica is pushed down by the weight of its ice sheets, the submerged continental shelf around it is deeper than usual, around 500-600m deep at its edge rather than 100-200m deep. It’s also cut by even deeper channels close inshore, some plunging more than 1km, scoured out by larger ice sheets in the past. So although the continent itself is remote, we can reach the deep ocean close inshore here – handy for us diving in minisubmarines, despite the need to dodge icebergs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193215/original/file-20171103-1014-ho9lkr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Giant sponges found in the deep waters of the Antarctic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC NHU</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There’s a gateway to the deep for marine life here too. Some deep-sea animals come into much shallower depths than usual around Antarctica, because the water temperature near the surface is similar to the cold temperatures elsewhere in the deep ocean. And in the past, shallow-living ancestors of some deep-sea animals spread out across the deep oceans from the Antarctic, via this cold gateway between the shallows and the deep.</p>
<p>One of my favourite animals that we saw on dives was the octopus <em>Graneledone antarctica</em>, whose ancestor ventured down from the shallows around 15m years ago, when the water temperature at the surface cooled to the same chilly temperature as the deep. Her descendants then spread out across the abyss like wagon-train pioneers, giving rise to several different species of deep-sea octopus found around the world today. Some stayed behind, however, becoming the species that we saw.</p>
<p>The ocean around Antarctica is also the lungs of the deep. Much of the life-giving oxygen in deep waters across the world begins its journey from the atmosphere here. As seawater freezes around the white continent in winter, it leaves behind very cold and salty water that sinks and flows into the depths of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans – even the deepest water in the ocean, at the bottom of the Marianas Trench 14,000km away, came from here. As this deep water flows out from the Antarctic, it carries oxygen, dissolved from the atmosphere at the surface. So the Antarctic is where the world’s deep oceans breathe in – and its waters are among the most oxygen-rich on our planet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"926559618540515328"}"></div></p>
<p>Another of my favourite animals from our dives takes advantage of those oxygen-rich waters: giant sea-spiders, with legspans up to 40cm across. Sea spiders <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/sea-spiders-pump-blood-with-their-guts-not-their-hearts/533088/">lack a respiratory system</a>, which usually limits their size, but can grow much larger in the oxygen-rich conditions here.</p>
<h2>‘Ancient ocean ecosystems’</h2>
<p>Diving in the Antarctic is also a journey back in time, to glimpse what ancient ocean ecosystems were once like. Fish dominate as predators in most marine ecosystems today, but few fish species can cope with the -1.5°C conditions where we were diving. The “ice dragonfish”, <em>Cryodraco antarcticus</em>, is a notable exception, however, and another of my favourite animals – with antifreeze proteins that stop its blood from icing up. Its blood is also clear, without any of the oxygen-carrying haemoglobin that gives ours its red colour – in the cold waters, enough oxygen dissolves directly in the fluid of the fish’s blood to keep it alive.</p>
<p>But there are few fish with remarkable adaptations like the ice dragon, and so invertebrates have diversified to dominate as predators in the deep ocean here, just as they did throughout the oceans more than 350m years ago. A final favourite from our dives epitomises that: the Antarctic sunstar <em>Labidiaster annulatus</em>, which is a relative of the familiar five-armed starfish. Nicknamed “the Death Star” by those inside the subs who watched its behaviour, it has up to 50 arms and grows larger than a dinner plate. It uses those arms like fishing rods, holding them up off the seabed to snag passing krill, thanks to tiny pincers on its skin that snap shut when anything brushes past them. Unlike other starfish, <em>Labidiaster</em> can wave its arms to catch prey here because there are relatively few predatory fish to chew them off.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193212/original/file-20171103-1011-ysygn2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A feather star dances in the deep waters of the Antarctic Sound.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC NHU</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Overall, seeing the deep Antarctic sea floor close-up from our minisubs should help us to understand how “dropstones” shape the pattern of life here. “Dropstones” are car-sized boulders that fall from passing icebergs – they provide “islands” of rocky habitat for filter-feeding species which otherwise don’t get a look-in on the soft mud of the Antarctic seafloor. But where the dropstones settle depends on the undersea terrain. As we found on our dives, they slide down steeper undersea slopes, actually scraping off marine life. But if you’re at the bottom of a gully, then lots of dropstones end up there, giving a major boost to local biodiversity. That pattern of life is hard to see from samples collected by nets or trawls in the past, so our first minisub dives to 1km deep in the Antarctic should help to make that “white space” no longer such a blank.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Copley was a scientific adviser for BBC Blue Planet II, and also receives research funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council.</span></em></p>
Few fish can survive in these freezing waters, so invertebrates are the dominant predators.
Jon Copley, Associate Professor in Ocean Exploration & Public Engagement, University of Southampton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/81633
2017-07-26T12:44:29Z
2017-07-26T12:44:29Z
Anthill 15: Unexplored places
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179801/original/file-20170726-30149-1q15p4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Into the unknown.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">pixabay.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In this episode of The Anthill podcast, we are off exploring. Our theme is unexplored places and we speak to academics who research remote corners of land, sea and space. </p>
<p>First, we go for a plunge into the ocean. The deep sea is often called the final frontier, a wild region we know less about than the surface of the moon. But is that really true? And what’s it actually like diving among the weird and wonderful creatures that exist thousands of metres below the waves? We speak to Jon Copley, a marine ecologist at the University of Southampton, who has <a href="https://theconversation.com/just-how-little-do-we-know-about-the-ocean-floor-32751">been to</a> some of the deepest trenches in oceans around the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179795/original/file-20170726-637-1w4qnjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Be careful what you run into in the deep ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From alien-like creatures in the deep seas, we zoom to outer space and the search for life on planets far from our own. We speak to Katja Poppenhaeger, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University Belfast, on her work looking for habitable <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/exoplanets-100">exoplanets</a> in other solar systems. She explains what a planet needs in order to support life – and how scientists are looking for it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179803/original/file-20170726-30134-6d7yo8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Kepler telescope shines a light into space in search of exoplanets.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/news/208/exoplanets-2020-looking-back-to-the-future/">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Then we land back on Earth, but not in landscapes that most of us would be familiar with. Most of the surface of our landmass has been explored by humans, but Yani Najman, a geologist at Lancaster University, tells us what it’s like to look out over terrain that few others have seen. Her work reconstructing ancient environments by looking at modern rocks takes her to the far reaches of the Himalayas and Antarctica. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Click here to listen to <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">more episodes of The Anthill</a>, on themes including <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-14-music-on-the-mind-79379">Music on the Mind</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-10-the-future-73404">The Future</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/anthill-9-when-scientists-experiment-on-themselves-71852">Self-experimentation</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Anthill theme music is by <a href="https://www.melodyloops.com/search/How+to+Steal+a+Million+Dollars/">Alex Grey for Melody Loops</a>.
The music in the exoplanets segment is <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Parvus_Decree/Aeon_1_Aegra/01-Space_Travel">Space Travel</a> by Parvus Decree and the music in the land segment is <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Sergey_Cheremisinov/Sea__Night/Sergey_Cheremisinov_-_Sea__Night_-_05_Fragile_Ice">Fragile Ice</a> by Sergey Cheremisinov.</em></p>
<p><em>A big thanks to City University London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81633/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this episode of The Anthill podcast we are off exploring: land, sea and space.
Will de Freitas, Environment + Energy Editor, UK edition
Annabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UK
Gemma Ware, Head of Audio
Paul Keaveny, Investigations Editor, Insights, The Conversation
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/79924
2017-06-25T20:05:25Z
2017-06-25T20:05:25Z
Sludge, snags, and surreal animals: life aboard a voyage to study the abyss
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175349/original/file-20170623-29738-17uu1u7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The famous "faceless fish", which garnered worldwide headlines when it was collected by the expedition.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Zugaro</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past five weeks I led a “<a href="https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/abyss-landing-%20page">voyage of discovery</a>”. That sounds rather pretentious in the 21st century, but it’s still true. My team, aboard the CSIRO managed research vessel, the <a href="http://www.csiro.au/RV-Investigator-virtual-tour/rv_investigator.html">Investigator</a>, has mapped and sampled an area of the planet that has never been surveyed before. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175343/original/file-20170623-27912-14vsgz7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The RV Investigator in port.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerome Mallefet/FNRS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bizarrely, our ship was only 100km off Australia’s east coast, in the middle of a busy shipping lane. But our focus was not on the sea surface, or on the migrating whales or skimming albatross. We were surveying The Abyss – the very bottom of the ocean some 4,000m below the waves.</p>
<p>To put that into perspective, the <a href="http://www.gnb.nsw.gov.au/place_naming/placename_search/extract?id=KWwGjzsETR">tallest mountain</a> on the Australian mainland is only 2,228m. Scuba divers are lucky to reach depths of 40m, while nuclear submarines dive to about 500m. We were aiming to put our cameras and sleds much, much deeper. Only since 2014, when the RV Investigator was commissioned, has Australia had the capacity to survey the deepest depths.</p>
<p>The months before the trip were frantic, with so much to organise: permits, freight, equipment, flights, medicals, legal agreements, safety procedures, visas, finance approvals, communication ideas, sampling strategies – all the tendrils of modern life (the thought “why am I doing this?” surfaced more than once). But remarkably, on May 15, we had 27 scientists from 14 institutions and seven countries, 11 technical specialists, and 22 crew converging on Launceston, and we were off.</p>
<h2>Rough seas</h2>
<p>Life at sea takes some adjustment. You work 12-hour shifts every day, from 2 o’clock to 2 o’clock, so it’s like suffering from jetlag. The ship was very stable, but even so the motion causes seasickness for the first few days. You sway down corridors, you have one-handed showers, and you feel as though you will be tipped out of bed. Many people go off coffee. The ship is “dry”, so there’s no well-earned beer at the end of a hard day. You wait days for bad weather to clear and then suddenly you are shovelling tonnes of mud through sieves in the middle of the night as you process samples dredged from the deep.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175338/original/file-20170623-21202-juh6u9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shifting through the mud of the abyss on the back deck.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jerome Mallefet/FNRS</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Surveying the abyss turns out to be far from easy. On our very first deployment off the eastern Tasmanian coast, our net was shredded on a rock at 2,500m, the positional beacon was lost, tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of gear gone. It was no one’s fault; the offending rock was too small to pick up on our <a href="http://mnf.csiro.au/Vessel/Investigator-2014/Equipment/Marine-acoustics-seafloor-mapping-and-fisheries-acoustics.aspx">multibeam sonar</a>. Only day 1 and a new plan was required. Talented people fixed what they could, and we moved on.</p>
<p>I was truly surprised by the ruggedness of the seafloor. From the existing maps, I was expecting a gentle slope and muddy abyssal plain. Instead, our sonar revealed canyons, ridges, cliffs and massive rock slides – amazing, but a bit of a hindrance to my naive sampling plan.</p>
<p>But soon the marine animals began to emerge from our videos and samples, which made it all worthwhile. Life started to buzz on the ship. </p>
<h2>Secrets of the deep</h2>
<p>Like many people, scientists spend most of their working lives in front of a computer screen. It is really great to get out and actually experience the real thing, to see animals we have only read about in old books. The tripod fish, the <a href="https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/faceless-fish-looks-happier-and-heartier-it-did-1887">faceless fish</a>, the shortarse feeler fish (yes, really), red spiny crabs, worms and sea stars of all shapes and sizes, as well as animals that <a href="https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/beam-us-j%C3%A9r%C3%B4me">emit light</a> to ward off predators.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175329/original/file-20170623-27895-pqfrw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A spiny red lithodid crab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Zugaro/Museums Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175333/original/file-20170623-21202-i5u60t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tripod fish uses its long spines to sit on the seafloor waiting for the next meal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Zugaro/Museums Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The level of public interest has been phenomenal. You may already have seen <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-30/researchers-drag-faceless-fish-up-from-the-abyss/8572634">some of the coverage</a>, which ranged from the <a href="http://www.npr.org/2017/06/15/533063615/explorers-probing-%20deep-sea-%20abyss-off-australias-coast-find-living-wonders">fascinated</a> to the amused – for some reason our discovery of <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/06/18/peanut-worm-looks-phallic/#GAkg8P.vh8qC">priapulid worms</a> was a big hit on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPgVtWDljcU">US late-night television</a>. In many ways all the publicity mirrored our first reactions to animals on the ship. “What is this thing?” “How amazing!”</p>
<p>The important scientific insights will come later. It will take a year or so to process all the data and accurately identify the samples. Describing all the new species will take even longer. All of the material has been carefully preserved and will be stored in museums and CSIRO collections around Australia for centuries. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175465/original/file-20170624-12633-l6b873.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Scientists identifying microscopic animals onboard.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Asher Flatt</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On a voyage of discovery, video footage is not sufficient, because we don’t know the animals. The modern biologist uses high-resolution microscopes and DNA evidence to describe the new species and understand their place in the ecosystem, and that requires actual samples.</p>
<p>So why bother studying the deep sea? First, it is important to understand that humanity is already having an impact down there. The oceans are changing. There wasn’t a day at sea when we didn’t bring up some rubbish from the seafloor – cans, bottles, plastic, rope, fishing line. There is also old debris from steamships, such as unburned coal and bits of <a href="http://www.ehow.com/info_12152358_causes-clinkers-coal-fired-boilers.html">clinker</a>, which looks like melted rock, formed in the boilers. Elsewhere in the oceans there are plans to mine precious metals from the deep sea.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175340/original/file-20170623-9385-g1pbck.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rubbish found on the seafloor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rob Zugaro/Museums Victoria</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Second, Australia is the custodian of a vast amount of abyss. Our marine <a href="http://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/dimensions/oceans-and-seas#heading-1">exclusive economic zone (EEZ)</a> is larger than the Australian landmass. The Commonwealth recently established a <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/marine/marine-reserves">network of marine reserves</a> around Australia. Just like National Parks on land, these have been established to protect biodiversity in the long term. Australia’s <a href="https://www.nespmarine.edu.au/">Marine Biodiversity Hub</a>, which provided funds for this voyage, as been established by the Commonwealth Government to conduct research in the EEZ. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=266&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175336/original/file-20170623-27895-1dazxfj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=334&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The newly mapped East Gippsland Commonwealth Marine Reserve, showing the rugged end of the Australian continental margin as it dips to the abyssal plain. The scale shows the depth in metres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amy Nau/CSIRO</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our voyage mapped some of the marine reserves for the first time. Unlike parks on land, the reserves are not easy to visit. It was our aim to bring the animals of the Australian Abyss into public view.</p>
<p>We discovered that life in the deep sea is diverse and fascinating. Would I do it again? Sure I would. After a beer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim O'Hara receives research funding from the National Environmental Science Programme's Marine Biodiversity Hub. </span></em></p>
Surveying the bottom of the ocean turns out to be far from easy. But there was something wonderful about seeing animals we have only read about in old books.
Tim O'Hara, Senior Curator of Marine Invertebrates, Museums Victoria Research Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72900
2017-02-14T10:44:33Z
2017-02-14T10:44:33Z
How we discovered pollution-poisoned crustaceans in the Mariana Trench
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156612/original/image-20170213-15790-8fqg1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A trench amphipod, _Hirondellea gigas_, from the deepest place on Earth: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench (10,890m).</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Jamieson, Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Even animals from the deepest places on Earth have accumulated pollutants made by humans. That’s the unfortunate finding of a new study by myself with colleagues from the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute, published in <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41559-016-0051">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a>.</p>
<p>Up until now I have tended to stick to the nice side of deep sea biology: <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-worlds-deepest-fish-in-the-mariana-trench-and-why-we-must-keep-exploring-35743">discovery and exploration</a>. My colleagues and I are quite at ease in ocean trenches as scientists there can usually work without having to wrestle with anthropogenic impacts like litter or noise and chemical pollution. It is Earth at its most pristine. </p>
<p>But in this instance, while investigating the ecology of Pacific trenches, and with such a unique opportunity to collect deep sea specimens, we couldn’t resist having a quick look for man’s mighty footprint.</p>
<p>We tested various different species of tiny scavenging crustaceans known as amphipods that we gathered between 7,000 and 10,500 metres in depth in the Mariana and the Kermadec trenches in the western Pacific. We found that regardless of depth, regardless of species, regardless of trench, these animals were loaded with the two types of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) we were looking for. </p>
<p>In creatures that live in shallower waters, exposure to POPs can reduce reproductive success and thus population growth. It’s hard to study deeper animals alive under controlled conditions but can assume the pollutants have a similar effect. There were striking variations between trenches and between the sorts of pollutant, but the salient finding is that humanity’s footprint is thoroughly imprinted on some of the most extreme and remote environments on Earth.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156611/original/image-20170213-15780-1a0w510.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=579&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The head of the voracious scavenging amphipod _Hirondellea gigas _.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Jamieson, Newcastle University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the deep sea these pollutants are particularly concerning as they are inherently hydrophobic, which means they will bind to anything that isn’t water. This includes tiny specs of “marine snow” or larger carcasses that fall through the ocean, which is how the deep sea receives most of its energy. Therefore the primary mechanism of food supply to great depths is also a very efficient way to deliver pollution.</p>
<p>But where did it all come from? Take one of the two types of pollutants for example, a category known as polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. About 1.3m tonnes were produced between the 1930s and 1970s to use in paints, plastics, electronic equipment and more. Of this, 65% is now contained in landfills or still within electrical equipment. But more worryingly, the other 35% was accidentally released <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15092651">into the environment</a>.</p>
<p>These pollutants are invulnerable to natural degradation and so persist in the environment for decades, therefore once they find their way into rivers, coast lines and the open ocean there’s plenty of time to sink many kilometres below the waves. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=780&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/156619/original/image-20170213-15806-1uee0dz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=980&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The world’s deepest trenches are found in the western Pacific Ocean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/k_g_m/4993458988/">Amazing Race</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And once a pollutant finds itself in the greatest ocean depth, where else is there to go? The bottom of the Mariana Trench, for example, the deepest point on Earth, was found to host highly-contaminated amphipods. Once these POPs are in the food web there are no mechanisms for dispersal or reversal from such great depths, and hence the bio-accumulation will only continue.</p>
<p>The only positive from this story is that, once people realised these chemicals were an awful contribution to the world, POPs were banned by the 2001 <a href="http://chm.pops.int/default.aspx">Stockholm Convention</a>. At this point one would hope some major lessons were learned. But no, we don’t look have to look far to realise this taught us nothing. Just take a look at the plague of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-ocean-the-most-harmful-plastic-is-too-small-to-see-35336">plastic microbeads</a> (and other microplastics) turning up in the ocean following a brief excursion from, say, a cosmetics bottle, across someone’s face or armpit and then sent on the long journey down the plug hole. </p>
<p>It seems that once again, we have a shocking example of our own stupidity, as people gradually realise that plastic microbeads are, funnily enough, made of plastic, and that stuff that goes down the sink doesn’t magically disappear into another dimension.</p>
<h2>The deep sea is closer than you think</h2>
<p>We have all likely heard that “Mount Everest would fit into the Mariana Trench with over a mile to spare” or some other pointless analogy regarding the number of elephants standing on a car illustrating the high pressures in the oceans. These all serve to needlessly distance ourselves from these remote marine frontiers. </p>
<p>Of course, the pressure and depth are immense, which do require incredible physiological adaptations for survival, and equally clever engineering solutions for exploration, but the 11km that so easily swallows Mount Everest is still only 11km. Think of it like this: 11km is only half the length of Manhattan Island, I could legally drive it in less than six minutes, and Mo Farah could run it in less than 30 minutes. </p>
<p>The reality is that the deep sea just isn’t that remote, and the great depth and pressures are only an imaginary defence against the effects of what we do “up here”. The bottom line is that the deep sea – most of planet Earth – is anything but exempt from the consequences of what happens above it, and it’s about time we appreciated that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72900/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Jamieson receives funding from NERC.</span></em></p>
But should we care if the extreme marine frontier is not clean?
Alan Jamieson, Senior Lecturer in Marine Ecology, Newcastle University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.