Exploration of Unknown Seas

Undersea explorer Robert Ballard leans back and smiles at the screens arrayed above his desk. One displays a view of a remote operating vessel, another scans along a seafloor never before viewed by humans.

news.yahoo.com...

I've always thought the underexplored depths are a treasure trove (literally and figuratively). Obviously, with advances in technology, more and more discoveries are and will continue to be made. Working in a high school, I find the idea that students could potentially participate first hand with some of these events exhilarating. As has been said here many times by others - We live in amazing times.

Have you been watching Blue Planet on the Discovery Channel? They did an episode on the deep seas last week that was absolutely amazing! All those bioluminescent fish, and jellies.

I think I had nightmares about anglerfish that night though. Creepy lookin' things they are.

I think that the topic of the deep sea, is amazing, we dont have a clue what is on the bottom of most fo these, remember that once they thought the giant squid was a myth, soon changed when one was really seen.

I saw that fish/jelly that lights up in loads of different colours, its all amazing.


Take Care, Vix

Only lifeforms undersea?

haha....there's more than lifeforms under the sea. Colossal megalithic structures of mankind's past lay hidden covered by barnacles and organic matter as well gloomy impenetrable silt darkness under the oceans.

Earth's past had always been cycles of ice melting and reforming and is a fact. How much of our ancient cities built when polar ice formed and seas low lying but now covered by the ocean when ice melted eons ago still lay down the depths awaiting discovery by intrepid engineers developing new tech daily?

Why bother about searching for aliens or lifeforms when much of mankind's past and secrets lay just under our feet?

I personally believe, although I have a somewhat different perspective when it comes to this, that deep sea microorganisms are far more interesting than their macro sized competitors. There are bacteria, for instance, that only survive on the toxic chemicals found near hydrothermal vents, and use the process of Chemosynthesis to process food. In turn they also help creatures like the tubeworm, which actually have no digestive tract, stomach, or mouth, but rely on the delicate relationship with these bacteria to process their food for them. There are many uses for these bacteria in modern industry as well as many of them are extremophiles that can withstand these extremely pressurized and toxic environments. Due to this, they have been noted for their ability to convert these chemicals into safer forms which can be used for the breakdown of hazardous waste.

Bacteria are just the tip of the iceberg when we look at deep aquatic microbial communities, as viral densities far outweigh bacterial life in most aquatic ecosystems. There are some rather odd and curious viruses, particularly found in the class of Bacteriophages, which infect phytoplankton and other organisms that may eventually shed some light on early life forms on earth. The diversity of marine viruses extend from enveloped forms such as Lipothrixviridae and Cystoviridae to non-enveloped viruses like Myoviridae, Syphoviridae,Rudiviridae, etc., and are far more abundant in their diversity than common viruses and land Bacteriophages. They are particularly known for the fast rates at which they evolve and mutate to suit their environment, and some have specific genes for repairing damage to DNA that is caused by excessive exposure to sunlight or chemicals. Deep sea viruses may actually be responsible for the regulation and production of life forms in every marine ecological environment on the planet. This can be explained because as a virus goes through the process of the cellular lytic phase and infection they convert molecules such as nitrogen, phosphorus, or iron from at particulate form to a dissolved form. In a dissolved state, phytoplankton and other bacteria are easily able to consume these nutrients, and the virus not only provides essential food for these bacteria but is able to mediate and self regulate its own future infection rates. This gives the virus the ability to maintain its own environment without totally destroying a life form, which it already outnumbers. Due to this factor, there have been suggestions that viruses are ultimately responsible for the delicate ecological balance that exists between the micro and macro worlds.

Here is a bit more on the subject:

Marine Viruses and their effect on Ocean Ecology

There is far more than meets the eye concerning the disbursement of life in the marine environment, and microorganisms (viral and bacterial) play a vital role in the diversity of life found on this planet. Not only that, but because of the extreme environments in which they tend to survive, there is a far greater range of diversity than their counterparts found on land.

Originally posted by Vixion
I think that the topic of the deep sea, is amazing, we dont have a clue what is on the bottom of most fo these, remember that once they thought the giant squid was a myth, soon changed when one was really seen.

I saw that fish/jelly that lights up in loads of different colours, its all amazing.

Take Care, Vix

I saw a documentary once that discussed the exploration of the Mid-depth oceans. They claimed that every several thousand feet of ocean was its own unique biosphere, so there are entire species of animals that neither see the ocean surface nor the ocean floor ever in their lifetime -- they spend their entire lives somewhere in between. These scientists stated that the mid-ocean was even less explored and less understood than the deep-ocean floor.

Its about time we took a closer look at our oceans. They are so big, there are just tons of things wating to be discovered. ancient ruins are deffinetly going to be found, i can imagine there would be some crazy creatures living on the floor by the heating vents. I can't wait to find out about all the jucy details!

Damn freeloaders

Originally posted by MajorMalfunction
I think I had nightmares about anglerfish that night though. Creepy lookin' things they are.

The creepiest thing I know about anglerfish is that the males hitch themselves physically to the females when they're still fry or fingerlings or something, and stay that way for life. They're essentially parasites that receive nutrients directly from the female in exchange for the sperm they provide.

From Wikipedia:

At birth, male ceratioids are already equipped with extremely well developed olfactory organs that detect scents in the water. They have no digestive system, and thus are unable to feed independently. They must find a female anglerfish, and quickly, or else they will die. The sensitive olfactory organs help the male to detect the pheromones that signal the proximity of a female anglerfish. When he finds a female, he bites into her flank, and releases an enzyme which digests the skin of his mouth and her body, fusing the pair down to the blood vessel level. The male then atrophies into nothing more than a pair of gonads that release sperm in response to hormones in the female's bloodstream indicating egg release.

That should be good for a nightmare or two...

Originally posted by Jazzerman
There are bacteria, for instance, that... also help creatures like the tubeworm, which actually have no digestive tract, stomach, or mouth, but rely on the delicate relationship with these bacteria to process their food for them.

In The Origin of Species, Dawin describes a symbiosis between a species of clam and the bacteria that lived in its gill membranes. The clam lived in the darkness at the bottom of the sea, among the ooze and exrement and carrion; like the tubeworms you describe, it had no alimentary equipment. It lived on what the bacteria excreted.

I thought the example offered an interesting question to Buddhists and other believers in reincarnation: which creature was lower on the karmic scale, the crap-eating clam or the bacteria infesting its gills?

Hey i was just thinking about what soem one said in this post about ancient ruins under the see, that got me thinking. Wouldnt some of those buildings be no more ? the pressure of the sea at such depths, nearly every thing known to man gets crushed at some depths. So whats the changes of some thing really being down there ?

Take Care, Vix

Originally posted by Vixion
Hey i was just thinking about what soem one said in this post about ancient ruins under the see, that got me thinking. Wouldnt some of those buildings be no more ? the pressure of the sea at such depths, nearly every thing known to man gets crushed at some depths. So whats the changes of some thing really being down there ?

Take Care, Vix

Not all ocean floors are the same depth.

There are lots of really weird looking creatures that live in the deep, dark waters that is the bottom of the ocean. So not everything crushes under the pressure. We also have manned submersibles that can go those depths now believe it or not.