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Using a computerized jellyfish lure and a specially designed camera system, researchers from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution are attempting to investigate deep-sea life without frightening the fish.
Previous deep-sea explorations have always upset the animals that are the focus of the research, according to Dr. Edith Widder, the project leader and head of Harbor Branch's Biophotonics Center.
The lights, electrical fields and noise produced by the standard manned submersibles and remotely operated vehicles either scare animals away before they're ever seen or frighten them into adopting odd or defensive behaviors, Widder explained.
To get around such problems, Widder dreamed up and then, in partnership with Harbor Branch's engineering division, developed an innovative camera system called Eye in the Sea to record life in the abyss inconspicuously.
"We are hoping to do some honest-to-goodness unobtrusive observation, which really hasn't happened in the ocean," Widder said in a statement. "Ultimately our goal is to see animals or behaviors nobody has ever seen before."
Eye in the Sea is designed to operate on the sea floor automatically and, most importantly, unnoticed by animals.
The system can detect animals nearby when they give off bioluminescent light, which over half of deep-sea creatures do. When bioluminescent displays are spotted, Eye's video camera is automatically triggered and a red light is turned on.
In the past, camera systems used on the sea floor have relied on bright and, for those creatures accustomed to the darkness of the depths, frightening lights. But the red light produced by Eye can't be detected by undersea animals, so the camera is able to capture images of the relaxed creatures as they go about their everyday lives.
The system can also be programmed to film surrounding areas at prescheduled intervals.
Eye in the Sea has been successfully tested during brief deployments on the ocean floor and has captured what Widder said are "unusual interactions," such as a primitive hagfish harassing a shark.
"Hagfish are long, skinny, pink-colored creatures that are infamous in oceanographic circles for the large quantities of sticky slime which they produce," said biologist Peter Frankers, who studies unusual fish in his spare time.
"Hagfish produce something akin to a 'sneeze' when their nostrils get clogged with their own slime," Frankers said. "They're almost blind and are usually assumed to be nonaggressive, so it's very interesting to see that one would hassle a shark."
Widder's team was scheduled to take Eye on a five-day research trip in Monterey Bay last week. But the team lost a day at sea when their equipment shipments didn't arrive in time, and then struggled with a camera malfunction that cost them another day.
"Such are the pitfalls of oceanographic work," said Mark Schrope of Harbor Branch. "But the project will continue very soon."
On Eye's next expedition, scheduled for mid-September, Widder plans to use the camera system with a simple electronic device designed to mimic the various bioluminescent light patterns given off by Atolla jellyfish.
Atolla jellyfish are common in the deep ocean and look something like a tie-dyed splotch when their round bodies are viewed from above. Widder's artificial jellyfish lure is a round disc about six inches across, with a ring of blue LED lights around its outer edge that can be programmed to light up in patterns similar to those created by the jellyfish.
Widder hopes the lure will allow her to test various hypotheses about how and why animals such as jellyfish use their bioluminescent capabilities.
When threatened, the jellyfish sometimes respond by creating a circular wave of light around their outer edge that progresses like the lights on a movie marquee. Scientists call this a "burglar alarm" response and theorize that jellyfish use it to attract large animals so they'll eat whatever animal is attacking the jellyfish.
To test that theory and others, the team will deploy the Eye in the Sea next to a box of bait along with the artificial jellyfish, which will be programmed to produce various displays, to see how other animals in the area respond.
The jellyfish lure could also attract large predators to the area, which would also be captured on film.
On future expeditions, Widder hopes to leave Eye systems deployed on the seabed at various sites for long time periods to get a more complete view of life in the deep.
On Monday, other Harbor Branch researchers will embark on their own mission to explore deep-sea sites in the Gulf of Mexico, from the southwest tip of Florida north toward the panhandle off the coast of Alabama. On what Harbor Branch calls a drug-discovery cruise, researchers will be searching for marine organisms that hold the answers to human maladies ranging from pain and inflammation to cancer and AIDS-related infections.
The team will also include members from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Ocean Exploration, as well as a Florida schoolteacher.
This exploration will focus on hard bottom areas of the Gulf sea floor. These include pinnacles of Lophelia coral that jut up to 500 feet from the sea floor in some areas, cold-water seeps where oil and gas bubble up from the bottom to support unique organisms, and sinkholes most likely formed by seepage of freshwater out of aquifers beneath the sea floor.
Most of these sites are situated along an ancient limestone ledge, which runs parallel to Florida's west coast and was once the shoreline 15,000 years ago, before the ocean rose to its current level.
The team will also be the first to explore the deep reaches of some of the decommissioned oil rigs scattered throughout the Gulf to learn what organisms live there. Studies of shallow platform areas have suggested that they are oases of marine life.
Past Harbor Branch drug-discovery work has resulted in two promising pharmaceutical discoveries: Discodermolide, an anti-cancer agent now in human trials, and Topsentin, an anti-inflammatory agent. Both are derived from marine sponges.
