Giant Squid Displays Itself to Museum Visitors

It looks like I am going to have to make a trip to London's Natural History Museum.

Read more at news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci...

Spam Posting Really @#$%@# Me Off

Yesterday, I posted on Deep-Sea Fish Are Pure. When I checked this morning 10 comments had been posted. Thinking for what ever reason the post had generated some discussion, I eagerly read them. I soon realized that US Charter Boats and host of other fishing sites, operated by the same person, had posted 10 separate comments all linking to their site. This is not a site for free advertising. Indeed, I do not allow advertising at the site at all. I hate seeing it in other blogs. Its just deep-sea news and nothing else (except for this post). I have began to send them emails. Please don't visit there website (the worst looking one I have seen, and I don't include a link here for it). However please feel free to email them telling them how you hate that they have tarnished this respectable blog.

Deep-Sea Fish Are Pure

Deep-sea fish oils are not cure-alls, the Consumers Foundation warned yesterday. "Don't believe ads for fish oils," said Dr. Hsieh Yen-yao, medical advisor to the Consumers Foundation. They over exaggerate the cures for deep-sea fish oils.

You mean those TV and Magazine Ads are lying?

Suppliers emphasize "deep-sea fish," claiming oils from such fish are "purer." That's nonsense, Dr. Hsieh pointed out.

Right...and deep-sea water is cleaner too!

Who would want oil from this fish anyway?

Read more at www.chinapost.com.tw/i_...

Picture from National Geographic

Humboldt Squid Invading Chilean Shores

The Humboldt Squid or the Jumbo Flying Squid, Dosidicus gigas , can be quite aggressive. Mexican fisherman often refer to them as the red devil. They can obtain lengths of 1.5m and migrate from the surface down to ~300m. During feeding migration they often approach shore. Even more scary they occur in schools.

In Chile, an 8 year old girl was swimming when she screamed. Several people removed her from the waist deep water where they witnessed a Humboldt Squid. It was stoned to death and later pulled to beach.

Begin to prepare for the the attacks!

Someone contact the Canadians!



Read more at www.mercopress.com/Deta...

Deep-Sea Serpents

Remember that kid in high school...Popular with the girls/boys, straight A's, great at sports, and generally perfect! You want to hate them but you can't because they are too good a person. So you hate yourself instead.

Ian Hudson fits this category. He is now the project coordinator and founder of SERPENT (Scientific and Environmental ROV Partnership Using Existing Industrial Technology). Note they cheat and use the second letter of industrial. The goal of the project is to link the oil/gas industry to scientific research. Specifically, ROV pilots with the oil/gas industry capture images and video that is disseminated to scientists via the SERPENT Program. The program has been quite successful, quite a feat for an endeavor like this, resulting in several publications. Moreover, new discoveries on anatomy and behavior have been made on rarely seen deep-sea species. Nature this week takes notice of the project.

You can find galleries, PDF of the Nature article, and more about Serpent at www.serpentproject.com/

New Vent Discoveries Discussed

Nature notes recent vent finds and provides some interesting antedotes.

Read more at www.nature.com/news/200...

No Secret Sharks In Abyss

A recent study suggests, based on 20 years of exploring the abyss, that sharks don't occur in this environment.

the oceans are about 70 per cent devoid of these predators

Important to note is that no reserve of sharks exist, bolstering the conservation effort to protect currently exploited shark populations.

Read more at www.scenta.co.uk/scenta...

Image: Six-gill shark swimming in for an inspection of the Eye-in-the-Sea. Image courtesy of Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.

Secret Sex Life of Deep-Sea Nomads

Interesting story at AScribe about deep-sea pelagic fish potentially aggregating and spawining at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Microbes Numerous and Slow But Not Stupid

In the murky depths, deep in the sediment, lies a forgotten but flourishing microbe community. They don't require much food and are slow to respond having...

"population turnover rates of anywhere from 200 to 2,000 years"

but

"The microbial ecosystem in deeply buried marine sediments may comprise a 10th of Earth's living biomass" and be "a sizeable and active archaeal community"

Read more

Fishing and Slavery Similar

In response to the curve ball by the fishing industry, buddha/sustainability/theory has this to say...

If you think about it the mentality of fishing and slavery are very similar - they both treat the living like non-living commodity, to be brought and sold by its owner. Where as once we saw a fish as a beautiful and wonderous creation of nature we now see it as nothing more than a supermarket product. It is as David Suzuki said the most urgent problem that needs to be tackled is our attitude. We need to regain a sense of respect for all things including respect for ourselves.

Read more here...

Protecting/Mining Deep-Sea Vents

A statement of commitment to responsible research practices in the deep sea was unveiled by InterRidge, an international scientific collaboration, at a special session during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) . The statement, written by key members of InterRidge onbehalf of its 27 member countries, publicly reaffirms the science community's long-standing commitment to responsible research and provides a guideline for NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), regulatory bodies, and researchers new to the field. This statement was combined with a special session at AAAS titled "The Latest Ocean Ridge Research: Microbes, Mining, Management, and More" sought to bring players together on the ocean-ridge exploration. Read more at www.spaceref.com/news/

Contrast this to the tone of the article entitled "The Dawn of Deep Ocean Mining" in which Dr. Steven Scott, a geologist at the University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada says that advances in marine geology and deep ocean technology have combined to make it realistic to go more than two kilometres underwater to mine.

But..."It’s a transformation that he says has evoked a knee-jerk reaction over the possible environmental impacts of this mining, which he believes could be less destructive than terrestrial mining."

I am not sure I agree with this based on evidence less than just a knee-jerk reaction.

"Reflecting on the environmental impacts of potential sea floor mining, Dr. Scott says that he believes it could be less damaging than terrestrial mining. According to Dr. Scott, sea floor mining avoids many of the problems associated with terrestrial mining. There’s no acid mine drainage, since the acids are neutralized by the alkaline sea water. The sulphide deposits are on the sea floor, so there would be no excavation and the resulting waste rock piles, and no permanent structures would be left behind. The mining also wouldn’t touch active black smokers, regions that are known to have a rich diversity of submarine life."

Hmmm...

Picture Credit: Richard Lutz, Rutgers University, Vent crab and fish among tubeworms

Tasmanian Seamounts Not Rare

The Humane Society (Australia) had nominated the Tasmanian seamounts for an Australian Heritage listing in 2004 but the nomination was rejected by the Federal Environment Minister because

"the seamounts were not rare in Australian waters and there was insufficient evidence the Tasmanian seamounts harboured species not well represented elsewhere."

However, the data shows that the Tasmanian seamounts are home to many rare and unique species. So lets nominate them again! www.themercury.news.com...

We are real people too!

Not deep sea, but I found it amusing. Read more at

www-ed.fnal.gov/project... Eerie that this drawing looks a little like me...you be the judge.

Malaysian fisheries gearing up

The Malaysian cabinet recently assembled a group of five companies to regain control of their fisheries from foreign fleets, mostly Thai fishermen. The companies were selected for the consortium because they have sufficient capital, expertise and manpower to make the fisheries profitable. The consortium was expected to develop and enhance fishing methods, increase production, generate greater returns in the fishing industry and help reduce imports. They would also be provided incentives and soft loans by the government. Just call it a subsidy.

Unfortunately, the Cabinet also plans something that hasn't worked before. To raise the living standard of fishermen, the government will launch an incentive project to subsidize new boats that can travel into deeper waters with better gear. This is a classic symptom of depleted resources from overfishing in the nearshore. The plan neglects the fact that gas is expensive, even in Malaysia, and these fishermen will soon find themselves working harder and longer to make less money. Five to one odds say the World Bank has something to do with this...

A Curve Ball From the NZ Fishing Industry

Absolute craziness....

Read more at www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0...

What falls from above

Greenpeace is renewing calls for a trawling ban off New Zealand. They recently obtained pictures from the NZ Ministry of Environment showing black corals on the deck of bottom trawl ships. The picture on the left is a centuries-old bubblegum (Paragorgia sp.) coral. This is further confirmation that trawls are doing heavy damage to the seafloor.

Other than that, there's not alot going on in the news regarding the abyss this Monday, so I turn, once again, to the old news.

Our Ocean World archives daily radio broadcasts about the ocean environment in RealAudio format. One story from January 2005 relates directly to a line of discussion we've been having here at DSN about surface inputs to the deep sea.

The story "Surface Weather/Deep Sea Life" describes findings from a 14 year study of deep sea echinoderms at Scripps Institute of Oceanography. The study found that surface weather directly affects the abundance sea cucumbers. Some populations increased after an El Nino event, while others diminished.

World’s Largest Deep-sea Drill

Following on Craig's deep-sea coring theme, the world’s largest deep-sea drill, Mitsubushi Corporation’s CHIKYU, is ready to launch. CHIKYU is the Japanese word for ‘Earth’. It’s first assignment will be “the world’s deepest drill hole” in the Nankai Trough, between two major tectonic plates that produced powerful earthquakes off southwest Japan in the past. CHIKYU will drill 7km into the Nankai Trough to install seismic monitoring instruments.

Seismic detection is serious business in Japan. Earthquake detection systems are rapid and sophisticated. This new activity is thought to supplement and improve those systems. Geologists hope to drill deep into the ocean floor to the boundary between the oceanic and continental plates for the first time into what's known as a seismogenic zone - the flash point for quakes. They hope to retrieve truly fantastic core samples full of bacterial extremophiles, and produce new archives of global climate change.

The standing depth record for a deep-sea drill is 2000m. CHIKYU plans to surpass the record through the use of a ‘riser pipe’, which will suction debris out of the 7km bore hole. The plume dynamics should be interesting, to say the least.

Craig's moved from New Mexico to Monterey Bay this week for his post-doc at MBARI, so perhaps he can enlighten us about sediment suspension and current flows in deep (Monterey style) canyons sometime in the near future.

Krill Feces Important for Deep Sea

"New research on Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), a shrimp-likeanimal at the heart of the Southern Ocean food chain, reveals behaviour that shows that they absorb and transfer more carbon from the Earth'ssurface than was previously understood. The results are published this week in the journal Current Biology.

Scientists from British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and ScarboroughCentre of Coastal Studies at the University of Hull discovered thatrather than doing so once per 24 hours, Antarctic krill 'parachute'from the ocean surface to deeper layers several times during the night.In the process they inject more carbon into the deep sea when theyexcrete their waste than had previously been understood.

Lead Author Dr Geraint Tarling from BAS says, "We've known fora long time that krill are the main food source for whales, penguins and seals, but we had no idea that their tactics to avoid being eaten could have such added benefits to the environment. By parachuting down they transport carbon which sinks ultimately to the ocean floor – an amount equivalent to the annual emissions of 35 million cars – and this makes these tiny animals much more important than we thought."

Krill feed on phytoplankton near the ocean surface at night butsink deeper in the water column during the day to hide from predators.By knowing how these animals behave, we can understand better thecontribution they make to removing carbon from the Earth's atmosphere and upper ocean."

From www.eurekalert.org/pub_...

Deep-Sea Coring

Excellent writing and informative piece about the history of drilling, including deep sea, to gain insights into the earth's composition and geologic processes

starbulletin.com/2006/0...

What is the World's Smallest Fish?

One of my favorite aspects of science is debate. It is the mechansism by which we refine and weed out ideas about the processes and patterns of ecology and evolution. This week the debate centers on the world's smallest fish.

Kottelat et al. in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, B published this week that the smallest fish is Paedocypris progenetica with females 7.9mm long. P. progenetica resides in peat swamps in southeast Asia. Paper available here...

Pietsch, however, disagrees. Last year in Ichthyological Research, Pietsch noted that the anglerfish males of Photocorynus spiniceps that are parasitic on the females are the smallest.

"The 7.5-mm parasitic male of Leptacanthichthys gracilispinis and the 6.2- to 7.4-mm parasitic males of P. spiniceps are the smallest to be found within the suborder and, if regarded as adults, which histological evidence confirms in the case of Photocorynus, they are among the world's smallest known sexually mature vertebrates as defined in terms of length, volume, and weight." (Pietsch, 2005, p. 232). Paper available here...

Of course David Wake notes that salamanders are the smallest vertebrates, so it a matter of semantics.

Read more at www.nature.com/news/200...

Of course the the anglerfish is a deep-sea fish which is why we report on it here. Note that other deep-sea record breakers include

Largest Cephalopod and Mollusk
Architeuthis sp., Giant Squid, Total Length: 12m, Mass: 900 kg





















Smallest Bivalve
Microgloma tumidula, Length: 0.00085 m

Largest Pycnogonid
Colossendeis colossea, Legspan: 0.70m









Largest Malacostraca
Macrocheira kaempferi, Japanese Spider Crab, Carapace Width: 0.36m, Claw Span: 2.74m, Length: 4m












or
Bathynomus giganteus, Length: 0.42m, Carapace Width: 0.15m














Largest Ostracod
Gigantocypris agassizii, Length: 0.025m







Smallest Ascidiacean
Minipera pedunculata, Width: 0.0005m

WWF Helps Deep Corals Win Protection

Score one for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Marine Program. WWF was instrumental in the recent adoption of new deep-sea marine protected areas by the General Fisheries Commission of the Mediterranean. The new MPAs are located off Italy, Cyprus, and Egypt. The decision requires all the Mediterranean states to restrict their bottom trawling fleets from these areas.

Protected habitats include deep-coral beds on Eratosthenes seamount off Cyprus, a Lophelia reef off Italy in the Ionian Sea, and a chemosynthetic ecosystem on the Nile Delta. Click here for the WWF news release.

In other news, the Fisheries and Agriculture Organization released a new publication called "Ethical Issues in Fisheries". The document is freely available from the FAO website. I doubt we'll find too much talk about the ethics of bottom trawling, but hey, it's a start...