Twilight zone brain eating eyeballs12/28/2023 In July, WHOI researchers will set sail for the first stage of a study mapping the twilight zone off the northeast US continental shelf. AFP PHOTO / JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN (Photo by Jean-Christophe VERHAEGEN / AFP) (Photo by JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN/AFP via Getty Images) Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP/Getty Images TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY LUCIE LAUTREDOU - A male Eurasian Lynx (also known as European Lynx) is pictured in the animal park of Sainte-Croix, on December 12, 2012, in Rhodes, eastern France. Using stereo cameras to judge a creature’s relative position (in the same way the human brain does), the robot moves with the animal at a fixed distance, allowing researchers to watch how it swims, hunts its prey, and document delicate bodily structures that would be destroyed if a physical sample were caught in a net, he explains. Yoerger developed “Mesobot,” an autonomous robot that discretely monitors slow moving fauna. These creatures are sensitive to light and sound, so monitoring them means devices need to be quiet and not stir up water, and employ red lights that most animals can’t see. “The unique challenge about working in the twilight zone is that we don’t want to disturb the animals,” says WHOI senior scientist Dana Yoerger. Read: ‘The ocean is our life-support system’: Kerstin Forsberg on why we must protect our seas Now researchers have the tools to estimate as many as a quadrillion (1,000 trillion) bristlemouths might live in the ocean, making it the most abundant vertebrate on earth. Dense formations of these tiny fish were once mistaken for the seabed by sonar equipment. But it has not always been advanced or nuanced enough to provide an accurate account of the region. Technology has long been a necessary friend of those studying the twilight zone. Paul Caiger/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Bristlemouths are thought to be the most abundant vertebrate on earth, with as many as a quadrillion (1,000 trillion) in the ocean. Without understanding lifecycles, there is no way to know how species could be fished sustainably. “There are very basic things about the twilight zone that we just don’t know,” Sosik explains, including the lifespan of some species, and how long it takes them to mature and reproduce. Some scientists fear commercial fishing operations could expand in this ecosystem, and small but abundant species could end up in fish oil, used in cosmetics and dietary supplements, or fishmeal, used in aquaculture to feed species farmed for human consumption. Now this quest for knowledge has become a race against time. The Great Bubble BarrierĪ 'Bubble Barrier' is trapping plastic waste before it can get into the sea Installed in Amsterdam's Westerdok canal, an air compressor sends air through a perforated tube running diagonally across the bottom of the canal, creating a stream of bubbles that traps plastic and guides it to a catchment system. "The Bubble Barrier" was developed as a simple way to stop plastic pollution flowing from waterways into the ocean. “What we know now is how much we don’t know,” she says. Researchers now believe there is 10 times, maybe 100 times the biomass previously thought, says Heidi Sosik, senior scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). And in the murk, the dominant creature, the ubiquitous bristlemouth, is smaller than a human’s little finger.Ī difficult area to study and often overlooked by science, new technology is aiding its exploration, forcing researchers to re-evaluate just how much life is down there. In the darkness eyes are small and teeth are large many species are transparent, many bioluminescent. Home to an array of species, from the anglerfish to the vampire squid and the fairy light-like siphonophore, it’s a place where oddness reigns. The ocean twilight zone, formally known as the mesopelagic zone, exists roughly 200-1,000 meters below the surface. And in the middle ground between light and shadow, science is making incredible discoveries. It’s hundreds of meters down, yet not so far as the ocean floor. Drop through the ocean in the right place and eventually you’ll enter the twilight zone.
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