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JULY
17:
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Hit the water in the JSL as it is launched from Harbor Branch's R/V EDWIN LINK.
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These styrofoam cups will go down outside the sub, where pressure will shrink them, miniaturizing all the pictures and writing that have been drawn on them.
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Al Fuller works on the Remotely Operated Vehicle. It is always on board during submersible operations as a rescue device.
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At 3,000 feet, this little squid came in for a closer look.
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The styrofoam cups after their journey to 3,000 feet in the Gulf of Maine.
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The crew of dive #4151 in front of the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK I. From L to R: there's me, Frank Lombardo and Al Fuller. Sub pilot Phil Santos is in the sphere preparing to dive.
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Click below to learn a bit more about this advanced and versatile deep-sea research tool...
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Accomplished videographer Brian Cousin is doing double duty on the Gulf of Maine cruise. He's gathering footage for a video about bioluminescence, and he's bringing the Gulf of Maine to your desktop as our @Sea correspondent. Click below to learn more about Brian...
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Is there a question you'd like to ask our intrepid correspondent? Send us an email at
AskAtSea@hboi.edu.
Selected questions will be forwarded to Brian, and we'll post the answers online.
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DISPATCH 10: Viewing the Mesopelagic* Fireworks
* 200 to 1000 meters deep
@Sea correspondent/photographer, Brian Cousin
The detritus sampler (background) is used to collect delicate midwater organisms. A video monitor is connected to the camera outside the sub, to the left of the detritus sampler.
July 17 --
One of Dr. Edie Widder's biggest beefs about bioluminescence is that she just can't show the real thing to enough people to convince them how valuable a phenomenon it is to study. I've seen videos of the bizarre-looking creatures she's taken with the cameras aboard the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK submersibles. I've seen video of bioluminescent displays the animals make taken in the lab with a special intensified camera. And I've heard Edie lecture to children and adults about the wonder of bioluminescence at Harbor Branch Oceanographic's Education Center. She puts on a great show with slides and video, and swirls a flask of bioluminescent dinoflagellates around on stage, casting a cool blue glow in the darkened auditorium. She and her husband David Smith have even published a Bioluminescence coloring book complete with glow-in-the-dark paints, activities and cool information, the proceed of which help support her research. Dramatic renditions of dragonfish, hatchet fish and jellies jump out off the page, begging to be colored in.
But nothing can prepare anyone for the dazzling display of light they would see if they could, 2,000 feet down in the Gulf of Maine. At the surface, which is frequently rough and sometimes too rough to launch the sub, it is easy to wonder why anyone would come here to do their research. Why not pick the calm, clear waters of the Bahamas? The reason is that these waters are more nutrient rich than those in the Bahamas. In the Bahamas it is possible to find a greater diversity of species, but fewer numbers of individuals. Here the opposite is true. The animals are here in strength, and that's what Edie and Dr. Tammy Frank require to do their work.
Today, I saw the light, too. At 11:00 AM I climbed into the JOHNSON-SEA-LINK I for my first dive up front in the sphere; dive number 4151 for this remarkable vehicle. It's a training dive and we're going right to the bottom, 3,000 feet down. Whenever there's a new pilot or sub technician to train, one training dive is made for every ten science dives. Sub tech Frank Lombardo is learning the ropes as tender in the aft chamber of the sub. Al Fuller is also in the back. Our pilot is Phil Santos, who has been diving in the sub for almost fifteen years. There's also a collection of styrofoam cups hitching a ride on the outside of the sub that have been artistically decorated by crew members, their family and friends. They'll be miniaturized under the extreme pressure found in deep water.
Diving in the sub is an incredible experience. In water, the sphere seems to disappear altogether. Somehow there's an invisible barrier between us and the deep blue seawater. With almost 360-degree visibility it's like being in a fishbowl in reverse: air on the inside, water on the outside.
On the way down, natural light fades fast. We turn on the subs lights and after a few minutes begin to see the layers of animals that Tammy and Edie follow through their daily migration. Lights on, we make it to the bottom which appears to be a dark brown sandy silt. A lone crab moves slowly across the bottom away from our position, disturbed by the bright lights. A flounder tries to hide by camouflaging itself to look like the bottom, no doubt hoping we'll go away. We videotape some jellies that come up to the sphere and a little red deep-sea squid. Even at this great depth, the current is strong - over a knot, and it's stirring up the bottom a bit. The sub has a top speed of little more than a knot, so it's difficult to make headway.
We ascend back up into the midwater level and Phil starts collecting animals for the scientists. With consummate skill he deftly maneuvers 28,000 pounds of submersible to gently capture jellies as fragile as soap bubbles in the detritus sampler. With a flick of a toggle switch each bucket closes, and the samples are secured.
We're on our way up and I'm going on about how awesome it is diving in the sub. At about 2,000 feet, Phil shuts off all the sub lights. I'm stunned into silence by what I see outside the sphere. So this is what Edie gets so jazzed about - this is what she needs everyone to see. Incredibly, all around us are thousands and thousands of deep-sea organisms all bioluminescing in the darkness as the sub disturbs them on its ascent to the surface.
A multitude of shapes appears in patterns of chemical illumination, from long thin chains to melon and football shapes. And the fireworks go on and on as we make our way up through hundreds of feet of dark, peaceful water.
"Unbelievable", I say.
"Favorite part of the dive", Phil answers.
This is the population layer, the "scattering layer" that appears on the screen of the fathometer aboard the EDWIN LINK. And it's here at this depth because this is where the isolume (light level) they are following happens to be at this time of day. Later, as it gets dark, they'll migrate upwards toward the surface to feed, following the isolume as they do every single day of the year.
Back on the surface I'm thinking, "Now I have Edie's problem. How am I going to get across how incredible this phenomenon of bioluminescence is?" I hope this dispatch helps. Thanks to Tammy and Edie for giving me the opportunity to dive in the sphere and get a glimpse, close up, of what your work is about. Thanks Phil, Al and Frank for the ride. I'll never forget it.
P.S. Best wishes from all of us aboard the R/V EDWIN LINK to Dr. Shirley Pomponi, Harbor Branch's Director of Biomedical Marine Research, who is celebrating a special birthday today.
Bioluminescent Facts:
Bioluminescent animals in the ocean can counter-illuminate to avoid detection by predators lower in the water column than they are. They adjust the intensity of their bioluminescence to perfectly match the intensity of light filtering down from above - light that human eyes cannot detect. By matching the light level, they eliminate any silhouette that could be seen from below.
The Navy has funded some of Dr. Widder's work. They needed to find ways to keep their submarines away from congregations of bioluminescent animals, which would light up when the sub disturbed them. Bioluminescent displays could be detected by satellites, revealing a submarine's position.
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