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There are two Research the types of people on board Rachel Carson: There is me, very sick. I spent a lot of time on the deck trying to keep an eye on the constantly fluctuating horizon. There are also scientists watching the remote-controlled vehicles hanging below us. Sitting on a chair with a joystick on the armrest, in an otherwise dim room surrounded by luminous displays, the pilot guides an SUV-sized robot through the galaxy of life—small fish, free-swimming crustaceans, jellyfish, and others The gelatinous creature dodges-stopping every once in a while to scratch something off the species’ shopping list.
Scientists at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and its related Monterey Bay Aquarium Institute are methodically searching for specimens for the new exhibit. Into the abyss, Open in spring. It will be loaded with extremely fragile and rare animals that are kept healthy in a life support system that has taken several years for aquarists to perfect. “Some of them we call’wet wipes,'” senior aquarist Wyatt Patry said of the species they are looking for. “You just need to touch it with your fingers, and it will begin to tear. Some animals are so delicate.”
We are about an hour away from the California coastal city of Moss Landing, where the ocean floor tilts sharply, opening a large span of water below us.As soon as we stopped at this place, the deck became active, and the workers gently lowered it with a crane Remote control car Venta is incorporated into the water. Dragging a rope can not only prevent the robot from escaping, but also allow the pilot to control it in real time. The machine immediately sneaked in and disappeared.
Now at about 1,600 feet, the ROV is beginning to collect animals in two ways: through pipes and by suction. To use the test tube, the pilot stretched one of the two robotic arms toward the specimen. Everyone uses a vertically oriented transparent tube. Once the animal slides into the tube, the doors at both ends close, trapping it inside.
In the video above, the robot is using a tube to collect the umbrella comb jelly, Uncertain seaweedThe comb jelly is indeed gelatinous, so be careful here, but it is not actually a jellyfish.They have tentacles, but they are not covered with stinging cells, but appendages Stick to the prey.
This is another collection of comb jellies, with prominent tentacles and bright colors, and may belong to a new genus (the classification of the above species) that researchers have not formally described. “We don’t know anything about it,” Patrie said. “We don’t know what it eats; we don’t know who ate it. So this is a true mystery.”
This train track comb jelly is making a light show. But flickering is not what you think.Bioluminescence is Everywhere in the abyss——For example, animals will glow with symbiotic bacteria to attract prey or mates.The color of comb jelly comes from tiny hair-like structures called cilia, which push organisms, only we It can be seen that the strong light of the ROV is actually reflected from the beating cilia. No color can be seen in the typical darkness of this part of the ocean.
The video above shows ROV’s second collection method, which uses a funnel with gentle suction and can withstand more processing than delicate comb jelly. The pilot only needs to extend the funnel to this golf t-shirt jellyfish, and the rest of the work is done by suction. After passing through the funnel, the animal is shuttled into the container in the abdomen of the robot.
This is a Christmas tree siphon. Like the comb jelly, the siphon is gelatinous, but it is not a jellyfish. They are aquatic animals, composed of units with different functions, which combine to form a colony animal.They will clone themselves many times, some species will stretch 100 feet long.
Once these samples are fixed, the pilot will bring the ROV to the surface of the water Rachel Carson, The staff lifted it up with a crane. Patrice and the other scientists rushed in to unload the collection tubes and transport them to a cabin on the deck. They carefully transferred the specimen to a plastic container and then into the cooler.
Two hours later, when we parked the car at the wharf, they drove the animal to a waiting truck, ready to be transported to the aquarium. With a proper life support system, the specimens will be happier.
You might be wondering: if human divers bend too quickly when ascending from a few hundred feet deep, is there any harm in bringing these animals up from 1,600 feet? Interestingly, they are good. Once they reach the aquarium, their display will match the water pressure, temperature and salinity that the animals are used to. The aquarists also let the water pass through a special membrane to remove almost all of the oxygen, replicating the low-oxygen environment that these creatures once called home.
As the ocean changes under the pressure of climate change, scientists are eager to understand this environment. Just like plants on land, photosynthetic algae called phytoplankton absorb carbon dioxide, which in turn is eaten by animals, which emit carbon-rich particles and sink to the bottom of the sea.So the carbon is taken out of the atmosphere and locked in deep, but scientists don’t know How this might change Like the sea Warm and acidic.
“Obviously, messing up carbon sinks can be catastrophic,” Patrie said. “One of the things we emphasized in the exhibition is deep——Ocean mining, This has considerable catastrophic potential in many ways. “Mining equipment can agitate the fine sediments on the seafloor, creating a huge plume that rises into the water column. “It removes almost everything that is gelatinous and sensitive,” Patrie said.
This video shows the ROV in pristine waters-of course, it is filled with small spots of white debris, but these critters are busy turning the carbon into sinking particles. They simply cannot adapt to the mud clouds that seep into their habitat. “As if killing the carbon converter is not bad enough, you might block some light in shallower areas,” Patrie said. This reduces the productivity of photosynthetic algae. “Now you begin to deal with the direct carbon uptake of the ocean, especially in high-productivity areas.”
Expeditions like this are not only a way to collect specimens for public viewing, but also to better understand these creatures-understanding “who lives in the deep sea, what they do in the deep sea, and what role they play in the ecosystem,” said Patrick. “Every opportunity you get is valuable to science.”
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