At 2,750 meters in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: an odd transparent sea cucumber, Enypniastes, creeping forward on its many tentacles at about 2 cm per minute while sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth. Photo: Larry Madin/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution/Census of Marine Life. The Census of Marine Life is a global network of researchers in more than 80 nations engaged in a 10-year scientific initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. Nearly 18,00 different ocean species have never known sunlight and yet survive in a frigid, black world, according to preliminary finds. But researchers say the biodiversity of the deep ocean is threatened by overfishing and climate change.

Murky ocean depths hide abundance of life
Jean-Louis Santini Agence France-Presse France November 23, 2009

Left: A "bush" of a deep-sea tube worm in the Gulf of Mexico. Photo: AFP

WASHINGTON — Thousands of animal species thrive in the ocean depths beyond the reach of sunlight, between 200 to 5,000 meters below the surface, an international team of scientists has reported after nearly 10 years of research. More than 2,000 scientists from 80 countries are taking part in the first global Census of Marine Life project scheduled to be completed in October of next year. Using deep-towed cameras, sonar and other state-of-the-art technologies, the teams since 2000 have inventoried 17,650 species of marine species, ranging from crabs to shrimp to worms, living below 200 meters, the penetration limit for the sun's rays.

The majority of the deep sea creatures live on animal droppings from the sunlight layer above, while others have adapted to diets of bacteria that break down oil, sulfur and methane, the sunken bones of dead whales and other foods. Edward Vanden Berghe, who manages the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS), the Census' inventory of marine life observations, said that, unsurprisingly, the number of species falls off dramatically at deeper depths. Nevertheless, he added, OBIS researchers have recorded 5,722 species living at a depth of more than 1,000 meters (yards). ...







Strange creatures of the deep found in underwater 'twilight zone'
Daily Telegraph UK November 23, 2009

Right: Census of Marine Life handout photo of a large octopod Photo: PA. “If it came up in a trawl it would just be a lump of jelly, but photograph it from a submersible, and it’s very beautiful and graceful,” said Odd Aksel Bergstad of the University of Bergen.

The Census of Marine Life, a major international project surveying the oceans, recorded 5,722 species living at depths greater than 0.62 miles where the sun never shines. Many inhabited icy cold black realms as deep as three miles where the pressure would crush a human. In total, 17,650 species were identified living deeper than 200 metres, the ''twilight zone'' where light barely penetrates and photosynthesis ceases to be possible. Scientists were surprised by the diversity of life in the deepest reaches of the oceans. Even the mud at the bottom of the ocean abyss was teeming with living things.

Among the bizarre creatures encountered by the researchers were a six foot long cirrate octopod - nicknamed ''Dumbo'' because of the large ear-like fins it uses to swim - discovered more than a mile deep on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Another was a ''wildcat'' tubeworm caught in the act of dining on crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico. When the worm was extracted by a robot arm from the sea bed, oil gushed both from the animal's body and the hole in which it was found. Also recovered from the Atlantic was an ''indescribable'' catch of multi-coloured invertebrates, including corals, sea cucumbers and sea urchins living a kilometre below the surface. At more than 1.7 miles down, in the northern Gulf of Mexico, scientists videoed an odd-looking transparent sea cucumber creeping forward on its many tentacles. ...

Researchers find hundreds of unknown marine species
Anne McIlroy Globe and Mail Canada November 22, 2009


What appears to be an ancient gold treasure is a magnified crustacean, a tiny copepod collected this year from the Atlantic abyss. Photo: Bünzow/Corgosinho/Census of Marine Life

... It is dark and cold down there, about three degrees Celsius. Most of the sea floor is mud, says Dr. Carney. But there is so much of it, with so many rare species of small clams, crustaceans and worms that it may have greater biodiversity than the tropics, he says.

Some of the animals feed on chemical or gases that would be toxic to most living creatures. Dr. Carney shot video of a solitary “wildcat” tube worm that leaked crude oil after it was yanked from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico with a robotic arm. These tubeworms have a hard body, much like human finger nails, and feeds on hydrogen sulfide, a gas that is produced as petroleum is broken down by bacteria. Except at very low levels, hydrogen sulfide is deadly to most animals. But this worm was feasting. ... On a trip to the Antarctic, the scientists found a new species of worm that eats the bones of dead whales. It takes so long for them to grow that many of the species that live in the deep ocean are old. Tube worms, for example, can be 100 to 200 years old, says Dr. Carney.


An elongated orange fish, identified as Neocyema. Photo from The Times

From eternal darkness springs cast of angels and jellied jewels
Frank Pope The Times UK November 23, 2009

... Scientists say that study of life within the seabed is vital for determining the viability of schemes to combat climate change by fertilising areas of the ocean to encourage the growth of carbon-consuming microscopic plants.

The census divided the survey into five separate zones: the continental margins, where the shallow shelves fall away to the deep ocean; the mid-Atlantic ridge, a section of the oceanic mountain range that snakes through all oceans but the Arctic; the abyssal plains that separate the two; seamounts, lone underwater mountains and volcanoes thought to number 100,000 but of which only 100 have been sampled in detail; and finally the specialised communities of hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. Only the “hadal depths”, ocean trenches that plunge as deep as Everest is high, remained out of reach of detailed survey. Information from the census will be used to inform efforts to protect the diversity and abundance of deep-sea species. Fishing the depths relies on bottom-trawling that can destroy fragile habitats before their existence is even realised. The offshore oil and gas industry is drilling in ever deeper water, and plans to mine rich mineral deposits on the seafloor are in prospect. [Dr Robert Carney of Louisiana State University] worries most about the prospect of the deep sea being used as a dumping ground, despite a current ban. “The question of what we are going to do with all our high-level radioactive waste is unanswered,” he said. “Ignorance is our main enemy. Before anyone starts to consider the deep ocean as a wasteland, we need to know what’s there.”