On top of the world (down under)
Alan Jamieson
Blogging from 'beyond the abyss'
It was a good for HADEEP today and indeed hadal biology. Today we photographed the second deepest fish ever filmed and indeed the deepest fish ever seen in the southern hemisphere, how's that for you?
'Today we photographed the second deepest fish ever filmed and indeed the deepest fish ever seen in the southern hemisphere, how's that for you?'
Supreme Commander Alan Jamieson
After a busy morning starting at 3am we recovered Jonah to find that he had not only survived a night at 7560m but he came back with about 1000 images of the Notoliparis kermadecensis. It is a very similar result to those we got at 7700m in the Japan Trench from 2008.
The deepest fish ever found in the southern hemisphere, the snailfish Notoliparis kermadecensis in all their pink glory.
This time I have counted to something like 12 in a single shot. They all seem to be quite small though. Beautiful images though, I am delighted. We landed on even more interesting ground, this time a mix of large rocks and pebbles with some nice biological activity going on.
I have to stress once again that these are a different species, although they look similar, and inhabit exactly the same depth range as those thousands of miles away in the Japan Trench.
This and yesterday's results from 7000m, as well as the 2007 videos show that this fish lives between 7000 and 8000m right from the north to the south of the Kermadec Trench, they don't appear to go shallower, they don't appear to go deeper, they just like that long sliver of a contour. The question is, do they live on both the east and the west flanks of the trench?
My guess is probably as we are currently at the join of the two. If they can't go up or down, then it is at this point where they have to decide whether to hang a left and go up the rockier and steeper continental flank or hang a right and go up the smoother oceanic flank. If they do go up the continental flank then their distribution is a rather bizarre thin oval-shaped band, circumnavigating the trench. Interesting.
In this shot you can see why they are called snailfish. This little chap is swimming upside down like a crazy fish but you can see the circular disc on their underbelly that can hold on to stuff, like a snail.
There's not much more to say than that. It's been a hard week but we got there. As much as I really want to push even deeper we have to be sensible. We only have the charter for two more working days and we are here to investigate the scavenging fauna of the abyssal-hadal transition zone. Therefore, scientifically and logistically we redeployed the lander to a meagre 4000m.
Earlier this trip we found an unusually low number of gnarly scavengers at 5000m, so we'll push that bit shallower to see if that is an area or depth related find. All going well, we will have completed a 4, 5, 6, 7 and 7.5km transect across the transition zone. Nice, although it breaks my heart to go as shallow as 4000m (kids' stuff!).
A good day all round although the transit between the 7500m and the 4000m site was pretty darned rough I can tell you. Today we are on top of the world (down under), no worries mate, no worries.
Posted on 10 November 2009
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