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MISSION DISPATCH 10 August 26, 2007 Mark Schrope - @SEA Correspondent aboard the R/V SEWARD JOHNSON Location: Off Little San Salvador 
A Mighty Big Shark
Scientifically, Justin
Marshall might choose the evidence he found of a swarm of small-animal
activity on the seafloor as the highlight of today's first submersible dive to
2,300 feet. But for impact, he'd no doubt have to pick the massive sixgill
shark that dropped by to have a look about the JSLII submersible. She was at least 12 feet long and was
kind enough to make a couple of passes right up against the sub's sphere and
camera, making for some great footage.
Besides following the shark for a while, Justin and Harbor Branch sub pilot Don Liberatore spent a good bit of their dive time exploring the area around the Eye-in-the Sea (EITS) before retrieving it and were struck by how much seemed to have been going on there. "It was like the whole area had been trampled in a feeding frenzy rushing to get to the bait," he says, "There was pretty much nowhere on the seafloor where there weren't footprints of sea urchins, crustaceans, and all sorts of stuff." A Pogo Stick Dance Misha Matz, though initially intending to explore much farther afield during his dive, says he and Don never moved more than about 150 feet from the spot where they landed. The self-proclaimed "molecular oceanographer" quickly came across more than enough animals to keep him busy, both in the mud and in the water column. There were more of the fish with the penchant for resting vertically in the water with occasional down and up motions. "We saw one huge one that was doing a weird pogo stick dance in front of the sub for a while," says Misha. 
Misha also spotted an unusual critter he initially thought must be a sea anemone but now thinks may have been a strange type of coral, possibly even a new species. They collected it, but like keys, samples occasionally get lost and this one never made it to the surface. It likely managed to float out of the sample bucket on the sub, but there were a few of the tentacles left, which will be enough for genetic testing that may help with identification. They spent much of the dive looking around a single mound of fine, oozy mud that Misha says must have held some special appeal for the animals there. "It was apparently very nutritious, " he says, "because every inch was covered in burrows and living animals." Misha also enjoyed his own extended view of the graceful swimming sea cucumber Sonke Johnsen earlier referred to as reminding him of a pink, chubby ballerina. Yelps of Joy On the ship, the day was punctuated by yelps of joy from Edie Widder and Erika Raymond as they reviewed footage from the latest EITS deployment . One of the most exciting things for them was finding that certain animals were creating bright bioluminescence displays in response to the lights on the electronic jellyfish, which is programmed to make five different displays. One is a single bulb flashing on and off and intended to look like the light given off by crustaceans called ostracods. What they have found is that this type of display, and none of the other five, repeatedly caused animals in the water column to respond with their own bioluminescent display. It will take further analyses of the light to determine what species the respondents were, but regardless, Edie and Erika showed that they were effectively "talking" to animals in the deep sea in their own light language. Figuring out what they've said may also take a bit more work, though. Another discovery that brought cries of joy was an excellent view of what appears to be a rare frill shark. This will have to be verified, but if it is a frill, it will almost certainly be the first time this species' natural behavior has ever been seen. For that matter, all of the EITS shark footage from this trip is undoubtedly the first time deep-sea sharks' natural behavior has been observed. Overall, EITS got footage of nearly a dozen different species of sharks, and has clearly shown how these animals dominate the Bahamian deep-sea environment. On Our Way As soon as the submersible was on deck from the last dive, we were on our way. Our next stop will be Freeport, sometime early tomorrow afternoon. 
ADDITIONAL DISPATCH IMAGES [ IMAGE 01 ] [ IMAGE 02 ] [ IMAGE 03 ] [ IMAGE 04 ] 
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