Life in a cold environment - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 165

(b) (c)

(d)

Figure 6.1. Pelagic animals in the

Southern Ocean water column.
(a) Jelly sh under sea ice. (Credit:
Simon Brockington, BAS); (b)
Apolychaete( sp.) from

the water column above the
Bellingshausen Sea continental
shelf. These worms swim with their
wide fleshy parapodia (like paddles)
and are widely found around
Antarctica. (Credit: Peter Bucktrout,
BAS); (c) Krill (

Tomopteris

)are
small, shrimp-like animals that grow
up to about 6 cm in length and live
for up to 5 years. Krill usually live in
dense swarms, which may have more
than 10 000 krill in each cubic metre
of water. (Credit: Jon Watkins, BAS);
(d) A swimming sea cucumber from
500m depth on the Bellingshausen
Sea continental shelf. Remarkably
some individuals of this species were
found within 100m of the surface
around 400m above the seabed.
This species is quite transparent
and the details of its digestive
system can be seen. (Credit: Peter
Bucktrout, BAS); (e)

Euphausia superba

(e)

Notothenia
amongst Bryozoan covered rocks
39m underwater. (Credit: David
Barnes, BAS)