Deep Sea Biology

A giant isopod is any of the almost 20 species of large isopod related to shrimps and crabs. They average between centimeters (0.75 – 1.1 feet), but can occasionally grow beyond that. They have seven pairs of legs, the first of which are modified into maxillipeds (leg-like mouthparts) to manipulate and bring food to the four sets of jaws. The gulper (or pelican eel) lives deep undersea, at depths between 150-1,800 meters (500 to 6,000 feet).

The easiest way to get experience in marine conservation (even from the comfort of your home)!

In addition, instruments moored to the ocean floor operate year-round, while autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can now be deployed there for winter surveys. Nematodes make up 90 percent of the organisms living in the sediment; much more rarely, crabs and polychaetes can also be found. The seafloor is home to e.g. sponges, sea lilies, serpent and feather stars, sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers; the ecosystem’s mobile species include fish and squid.

The Ocean Census Announces 2025 Species Discovery Awardees

Covering over 70% of the planet, the ocean is Earth’s largest life-support system, and it has already shielded us from the worst impacts of the climate crisis. It has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat generated by burning fossil fuels, and about 30% of human-generated carbon dioxide emissions since the 1980s. Without this massive buffer, global temperatures would already be far higher than they are today.But the story doesn’t end at the surface. The deep ocean plays an especially critical role in climate regulation, carbon storage, heat transport, and many ways in which scientists are only beginning to fully understand.

• One of its many light-producing photophores can be found on a barbel attached to its lower jaw, which it most likely uses for hunting.
• The intrinsic long-term benefits of a healthy ocean far outweigh any short-term incentives offered by deep seabed mining.
• Sometimes the prey being lured can be small plankton, like those attracted to the bioluminescence around the beak of the Stauroteuthis octopus.
• The deep sea is Earth’s largest and least explored ecosystem – a mysterious world of towering underwater mountains, vast plains, and life forms found nowhere else on the planet.
• Discoveries about life here are providing new routes for medicine and clues about the beginnings of life on Earth.
• They average between centimeters (0.75 – 1.1 feet), but can occasionally grow beyond that.
• Though fish can be found at all depths, their density is far lower in the bottom-most layers.

inspiring photos of thriving deep-sea animals

This unusual shark occurs in warm, oceanic waters worldwide, and has been recorded as deep as 3.7km. It normally grows to about 50cm in length, it has a long, cylindrical body with a short, blunt snout. The gulper eel has been found in temperate and tropical areas of all oceans. The depth record for any giant isopod is around 2,500m but a few species have been reported from shallower depths.

Deep Sea Corals

Beginning with the bathypelagic zone, the ocean is completely void of light from the sun, moon and stars. Animals create their own bioluminescent light and, if they haven’t lost them, have highly light-sensitive eyes to see the light produced by other animals. And finally, the deepest reaches of the ocean are found at the bottom of precipitous trenches. These locations venture into the hadalpelagic zone, places so deep only a handful of humans have ever traveled there so far. In relations to protein substitution, specific osmolytes were found to be abundant in deep sea fish under high hydrostatic pressure.

Most of this comes in great pulses as the result of phytoplankton blooms. When the phytoplankton are gone, the animals that grew quickly to eat them die and sink to the seafloor. Like the open ocean, the seafloor is similarly divided into distinct zones.

• There are only a handful of comparable observatories worldwide, and HAUSGARTEN is the only one located in a polar region.
• Remotely operated vehicle Deep Discoverer explores the Mariana Trench at the depth of 6,000 meters (3.7 miles).
• Within hours of falling, sleeper sharks, rattail fish, and black hagfish flock to the carcass like moths to a flame.
• Nearly two thirds of the world’s ocean — including most of the deep sea — is outside national jurisdiction.
• Covering more than half of the planet’s surface, this hidden world is teeming with unique and bizarre life forms—from glowing jellyfish to fish that can withstand crushing pressure.
• The Knowledge Hub is your gateway to discovering the wonders of the deep, and learning how this hidden world is connected to all of us.

Without these critical processes, our climate Deep Sea and food webs would be vastly different—and far less hospitable for life as we know it. Plumes of wastewater, sediment and residual metals discharged from ships during mining could flow hundreds of kilometers away from the mining sites. The metals they contain could prove toxic to some forms of marine life and could, potentially, get into the marine food chain.