Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
shop. We wanted to learn from them as much as we could about the
biology and habits of the particular animals they studied, and find out
whether they thought it was possible to keep these animals alive. Know-
ing which ones would most likely do well and which wouldn't could,
we knew, save us considerable time.
Although few of the researchers had attempted to keep these ani-
mals for any length of time, they were most helpful and were optimistic
about what we were doing. We had two major advantages at the out-
set: first, we were close to the largest submarine canyon in North Amer-
ica, and second, we had the cooperation of MBARI, whose research
work focused on the depths of the canyon. Encouraged by the infor-
mation our consultants gave us, and by their optimism, we started work.
Gilbert Van Dykhuizen launched the research into keeping deep-sea
animals by setting up a series of holding tanks connected to two sep-
arate life-support systems and refrigerated to about 42°F, the temper-
ature of the water at a depth of three thousand feet. For these initial
research e¤orts, the water systems would be at surface pressure, with
no attempt made to keep animals under high pressure.
In cooperation with MBARI and California State University's Moss
Landing Marine Laboratory, we began collecting animals from the
depths of the Monterey submarine canyon using MBARI's remotely
operated submersible as well as midwater and bottom trawls and traps.
Although deep-sea animals had been collected previously, they almost
always came up dead or dying from damage caused to their fragile bod-
ies by the nets used to catch them. The ROV, however, has special de-
vices that were designed specifically to collect animals without dam-
aging them: a maneuverable manipulator arm that can pick up rocks
with attached animals, a controllable suction device, a storage drawer,
and closable sampling cylinders. These proved invaluable for collect-
ing extremely fragile midwater animals.
As in any pioneering venture, we had some successes and we had
some failures, but what mattered was that we were learning more and
more about the lives of the remarkable inhabitants of that deep, dark
world.
Among our earliest successes were some fascinating animals. Tow-
ing a midwater trawl at depths of two thousand feet, we collected and
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