New Deep Ocean Creatures

An anonymous reader writes "NORFANZ was a recent expedition that went really deep into the ocean in the search for new species that live in the largely unchartered waters of the Tasman Sea. Check out the site and some very cool pics."

That Giant Rattail..

[Papatoast (245525)]

closely resembles one of the 'sea monsters' that lived in/near The Core in Phantom Menace. Shame it didn't eat Jar Jar....

heh

[by Anonymous Coward]

To assist with down load time, we have reduced the number of images in each photo page. Your favorite image may have moved to a new page, but no images have been removed

I have a feeling someone isn't going to be very happy when they get to work this morning.

also of interest

[pubjames (468013)]

If you like this stuff, read this recent news story:

Giant sea specimen baffles scientists [msnbc.com]

Re:also of interest

[tbmaddux (145207)]

Giant sea specimen baffles scientists

Bah! If you don't understand it, blow it up, [perp.com] dude! Would have been perfect for the 4th.

Re:also of interest

[Trigun (685027)]

It turned out to be a rotting corpse of a giant sea squid.

Re:also of interest

[Trigun (685027)]

Here's [rednova.com] the RedNova article on it.

Re:also of interest

[by Anonymous Coward]

I'm quite angry at the continued use of the word "baffle" in headlines regarding this fleshy anomaly. You see, when I first saw it on cnn.com last week, I thought it said, "Giant sea creature BATTLES Chilean scientists." Now that would be pretty fucking cool. Not that a fucking huge part of some weird creature isn't also pretty cool, it's just not as cool as a battle between a bunch of scientists and a living weird creature.

Re:also of interest

[sbszine (633428)]

You might also like to read the slashdot story [slashdot.org].

Re:also of interest

[TopShelf (92521)]

I dunno, it sure looked like a giant "specimen" to me, if you know what I mean...

A very important question remains...

[shik0me (235948)]

How do they taste?

Actually...

[JaredOfEuropa (526365)]

"How do they taste?"

Check out some of the older fish determination guides: some of them actually have information on the tastiness listed with each fish. These won't be in the guides though.

True story...

[kiwimate (458274)]

There's a popular tourist/holiday spot up north in NZ called the Bay of Islands. One of the most popular towns is Paihia. There's a small aquarium on the main strip, which contains only sea creatures that were found in the local region.

My wife and I went in there one day, and as we walked through the front door a very nice chap introduced himself, said he was the owner, and to feel free to ask him any questions we might have. We started walking around, and soon decided we wanted some more information about a particular fish, so asked him, and he obligingly answered our question. He then followed up by telling us, "By the way, that fish is also quite tasty to eat. You want to cook him up with just a splash of lemon juice, and he'll be beautiful". He then started pointing out other fish in that tank, telling us which were no good to eat and exactly how to cook the ones which were good to eat.

That guy very kindly gave us a full guided tour of the whole aquarium (it was a slow day) -- including his own personal cooking suggestions for every single tank in the place.

Re:A very important question remains...

[tuffy (10202)]

How do they taste?

Like chicken, surely.

As fisheries are wiped out, fishermen go deeper.

[Medievalist (16032)]

For example, the formerly plentiful Patagonian and Antarctic Toothfishes (known in the restaurant trade as "Chilean Sea Bass [greenpeace.org]" despite being amazingly ugly deep-sea dwellers) are well on their way to being fished to extinction.

Like many large fish, they have a long reproductive cycle, and thus are easily driven to extinction by modern fishing methods. Not that the fishing industry as a whole isn't fishing pretty much everything to commercial extinction, but they can do it a lot faster to species that take a long time to become reproductive adults.

Is anyone else afraid?

[aliens (90441)]

I recently saw in Popular Science I believe scientists who were going to use computer simulations to show people what the ocean looked like off of San Fran 100 years ago versus today (100 is what I remember). Just one tiny picture was all I needed to see.

Overfishing is a serious problem. I don't think people really understand how few of the popular fish are left out there.

Are we going to end up harvesting plankton a la SOylent Green?

It's not a question of wether Nature can bounce back, she can, and rather quickly, but the fishing has to stop for a bit. Unfortunately shortsighted people will continue to push for more fishing lanes.

The flip side of this is that fishermen have to eat and survive too. It's not as simple as telling them they can just up and get a job in an office.

So my question is, before I goto google for a bit, does anyone have any links to helpful sources for the preservation of our Oceans? It has to be done, and there has to be some way of keeping the fishermen paid. Does it require government subsidies? Perhaps, they'll step in way before a company offers to pay fishermen to stop fishing.

Re:Is anyone else afraid?

[nadaou (535365)]

So my question is, before I goto google for a bit, does anyone have any links to helpful sources for the preservation of our Oceans?

Yes.

Check out the PEW Oceans Commision's final report, released last month. Everything you want to know, without the spin.

"Scientists, fishermen, conservationists, elected leaders, and business officials unveil recommendations to avert decline of ocean wildlife and collapse of ocean ecosystems"

http://www.pewoceans.org/

Re:As fisheries are wiped out, fishermen go deeper

[Rorschach1 (174480)]

Sea Bass extinction? That's easy to avoid... just strap some freakin' "lasers" to their heads.

Deep sea crab

[nacturation (646836)]

Did you see the size of that? I'm just imagining how that would taste dipped in clarified garlic butter right now...

Collecting specimins of ultra - rare fish?

[Negadin (261695)]

From the page: "Before our cruise, these were the only two records of this rare fish in the world. Its rarity lead to it being formally recognised as threatened. In one short trawl at around 90 m deep near Ball's Pyramid, we collected three specimens and excellent fresh photographs taken by Kerryn Parkinson."

With only two records of a fish in existance, you then "collect" three specimens to keep?

What happens if you never see them again?

Re:Collecting specimins of ultra - rare fish?

[l810c (551591)]

There are lots of 'rare' fish in the deep ocean. I don't think they are endangered, just hard to find in such an inhospitable place.

Re:Collecting specimins of ultra - rare fish?

[Azghoul (25786)]

You do have a point. However, if there were only 5 or 10 on the planet, they weren't long for this earth anyway. Gene pool and all that...

Re:Collecting specimins of ultra - rare fish?

[Mantrid (250133)]

I don't think there's much of a problem - during random trawling they pulled up 3, given the size of the ocean, and the minute percentages actually checked, odds are there's tons of those buggers down there. And if we did remove the last three, well the species didn't have much hope anyways! It's not like they set out to find three endangered fish and pull them to the surface.

And I'm afraid that being pulled to the surface is a one-way trip. So once they were discovered there wasn't much to be done.

Funky Evolution

[Wyatt Earp (1029)]

There's some funky stuff going on down there. Like the dating habits of the Humpback Anglerfish.

"For me, this bizarre fish (the size of a tennis ball) is one of the most fascinating creatures in the deep sea. It has it all, its black, has big savage teeth, little nasty pin eyes, a big flabby stomach ready to fit in anything it can catch (irrelevant of size) and a rod lure off the top of its head with a glowing tip to coax in stupid prey. It doesnt stop there: its flesh is watery, its bones are very light (barely coated by a thin layer of calcium carbonate) and it can barely swim (theres not much of a tail). This animal just hangs mid-water waving its little lure and waiting to chomp. And this is only what the female looks like! The male is completely different. Hes very small and looks like a black jellybean with fins. He has no lure, has big eyes, huge nostrils and a fairly small mouth with curved hooked teeth. His body is made of strong red muscle for swimming long distances. Why the difference? Shes looking for food, hes looking for her. She releases anglerfish-type perfumes into the water and he spends all his time swimming around looking and smelling for her. When he eventually finds her (in the dark), he latches on to her side (with his hooked teeth) and drinks her food-rich blood in return for producing the sperm she needs when it comes time to release her eggs."

Or the Mossish ( Caulophryne jordani )

"Like other anglerfishes, males are very different. They are small and have simple fins. In this species, the male latches on to the female and doesn't let go. Their skin fuses and he stays as a permanent pimple with eyes, drinking blood and making sperm."

Re:Funky Evolution

[Rinikusu (28164)]

Proof positive that being a nice, sensitive guy who listens to girls' feelings and wants and desires only gets you put into the "gay" zone while being a parasitic leech who only uses girls for food and fucks gets all the play.

Shrimp

[seen2much (576446)]

I see they discovered the goblin shrimp, but did they discover this species [penny-arcade.com]

New creatures indeed

[Scurrility Extempore (685637)]

Incredible! Finally, an authentic photograph [oceans.gov.au] of Cowboy Neal!

Old

[tsa (15680)]

I think one of the reasons why these creatures look so weird is that they may have had the most time of every type of creature to evolve. The deep sea is not affected by ice ages and warm periods that have a large influence on the surface of the planet, so the enviromnent in which these creatures evolved may have been virtually undisturbed for many millions of years.

Re:Old

[tiled_rainbows (686195)]

My first reaction to your comment was to post something saying how you were totally wrong, but then I read it again, and it's an interesting point.

Are you saying that this environment has existed in its curent state for so long that the species living in it have had more time to adapt to more and more specialised niches within it?

Whereas on land, where you get ice ages, meteorite strikes, etc, every so often, species have to adapt quickly, so therefore, in the long run, the less specialised species are at an advantage?

If you were saying that, then I agree with you.

Re:Old

[commodoresloat (172735)]

Actually, he was saying they look this way because they're much more highly evolved than any other species on the planet. Sure, it looks ugly and crazy to us, but we just don't understand their superpowers. They will reveal them in time.

And I, for one, will welcome our new ichthyoid overlords!

Re:Old

[Sgt York (591446)]

Nutrient flux to the bottom plays a huge role in the deep water ecosystem. With no light, there is no photosynthesis, so the bottom of the food chain difffers from what we are used to. If there is a vent nearby, the creatures that feed off it's heat & chemicals form the base of the food chain. If there is no vent, the only source of food is the manna from above. Animals that die and sink, feces, solid runoff from shores, etc form the bottom of the food chain. Detritus fills the place of plants, scavengers take the place of herbivores, and predators, well, they're still predators.

It is conceivable that at times of massive kills at the surface (comet/asteroid strikes, climate change) the flux of food increased rapidly. This would give rise to a brief period of intense growth, coupled with an increase in the diversity in each species. Once the feast is over, there will be a massive die-off (i.e., selection event) as the scavengers, then predators starve.

Haven't we come a long way!

[Chocolate Teapot (639869)]

At risk of sounding like a tree hugger, I have to say that the cool factor of the pictures is somewhat diminished by the fact that these creatures are .... well .... dead. I was kind of expecting to see some nice photos of the animals in there natural habitat where they would generally look a lot better. It would be ironic if one or more of the specimens turned out to be extremely rare, consequently making these the first and last photos of a potentially endagered species.

"To seek out new life and new civilisations...and grill them with a knob of butter and a sprig of parsley. Mmmmmm."

Wonky eyes?

[burgburgburg (574866)]

In the description of the Jewel Squid:
Firstly they have wonky eyes, the left eye is always much larger than the right.

If they're going to throw technical jargon like that at us, I'll be completely lost.

Dude...that's just crazy.

[jvmatthe (116058)]

Read up on fishes here: http://www.oceans.gov.au/norfanz/CreatureFeature.h tm

Especially the last one, known as the Jewel Squid. This just boggles my mind. And I quote:

The common name comes from the scattering of small iridescent spots over the undersides of the body, head and arms. These are tiny directional light organs like tiny car headlights. When the squid is hanging at a 45 angle, all the light organs aim down and produce just enough light to cancel out the silhouette of the squid against the weak light from the surface above. They can even adjust the lights for different depths or time of day.

It's almost difficult to believe that such a creature exists, much less was the product of random gene bit-flips over millions of years. Not that evolution isn't a reasonable theory (one which I happen to believe) but this is one of those crazy outcomes that seems so difficult to accept.

Re:Dude...that's just crazy.

[mediahacker (566995)]

Wanna go really cazy??? :-)

Photophores originated from colonies of phosphorent bacteria that were living in the fish. This eventually evolved into a differentiated tissue that was light-emitting.

The optical mechanism of these photophores can be quite complex too - it is expensive (metabolically) to turn the light on and off so iris-like shutters have evolved for some species...

For those so inclined

[IWantMoreSpamPlease (571972)]

to own a "coffinfish", a species very close in look and character can be had easily. The marine fish is known as a "frogfish" and are highly interesting creatures to keep in a dedicated reef-tank.

Just FYI

underwater habitats

[TWX (665546)]

It really surprises me how many people think of the world's water simply as "The Ocean", like it's one homogeneous thing that has the same contents everywhere. I'd expect that it would be even more varied than surface life, since different pressures, temperatures, currents, light levels, seafloor materials, salinity, and other fluid contents would vary greatly from location to location, and since depth allows for many ranges of habitats (and life forms can float at a certain depth easier than they can equivalently in air) we'd have more to look at than we could possibly ever figure out entirely. I'd think that we'd be tripping over new life forms every time we looked anywhere intently or anywhere we hadn't gone before.

Re:underwater habitats

[3Bees (568320)]

I'd think that we'd be tripping over new life forms every time we looked anywhere intently or anywhere we hadn't gone before.

Not just the oceans, either. Biologists are only able to identify something on the order of 70% of the fish sold in markets near the mouth of the Amazon.

For you lynx users...

[mofochickamo (658514)]

I used aalib to convert some images to ASCII. Here they are:

>===@ (Angler)

|==\=> (Glowing Antenna Thingy)

8==============> (errrr...)

In honor of Jacques Cousteau...

[Alien Being (18488)]

I'm reading every post with a french accent.

Fangtooth pic

[hether (101201)]

The BBC had this story a week or two ago: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3017078.stm and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3034520.stm

I didn't see the picture of the fangtooth on the link provided in the story above so wanted to share. Perhaps I just missed it? A couple of the other pics are different too I think.

So Giger was abusing nature's copyright

[theolein (316044)]

Take a look at this [oceans.gov.au] friendly little sample and ask yourself where H.R.Giger really got his inspiration for our friends, the aliens, in the Aliens movies series.

New tape of squid

[singularity (2031)]

No, this is not about the large piece of blubber that they found on the beach.

This article [msnbc.com] has pictures and a video of a very cool new large species of squid. It seems to fly through the water with wings, and has cool alien-like arms coming off the rear of it.

Amazing that is has been spotted in four different oceans, but no one has seen it before. It says a lot about how much we do not know about the oceans.

Blue Planet - Seas of Life

[phildog (650210)]

If you find this stuff at all interesting, I urge you to check out the 8 part miniseries Blue Planet - Seas of Life. These originally aired in the US on the Discovery channel (I believe the BBC was the first), but you can still get the DVDs from the merchant of your choice. I'm not sure the 2nd four episodes are on DVD yet.

The Discovery Channel Website [discovery.com] doesn't indicate that these will air again anytime in the near future. You will also note that the Discovery Channel's web strategy is severely lacking because there is no way to have them notify you when it is coming on again. Or are they just being obscure because they reap more profits from DVD sales?

But I digress, this series kicks ass. It doesn't focus solely on the deep-sea critters, but rather casts a wide net. If you saw this show and were not completely freaked out by the presence of crazy brine pools at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, you aren't very curious about the world you live on.

Alien Face Hugger

[Nova Express (100383)]

Is it just me, or does the Anemone Hermit Crab shown in the second picture on this page [oceans.gov.au] look rather like an immature form of the Alien Face Hugger? Obviously H. R. Giger is a Tasmanian marine biologist in his spare time...

Light based cloaking device

[anagama (611277)]

"When the squid is hanging at a 45 angle, all the light organs aim down and produce just enough light to cancel out the silhouette of the squid against the weak light from the surface above. They can even adjust the lights for different depths or time of day."

Scroll down for the picture of a Jewel Squid [oceans.gov.au].

The Sea is one scary place

[Punk Walrus (582794)]

... about three quarters of the planet is covered by water
... most of it is unexplored
... we're not aquatic

I'd say the odds are against us.

I used to know a guy who lived in Guam who told me about some of the scary stuff locals would find in trawlers. Most were tiny fish, but a few were big enough to give a trout a run for its money. One of the stories he used to tell me:

I was sitting up high on some hills, overlooking the deeper waters. I was watching some sport fishermen who were in the process of catching a huge great white shark. It must have been almost a ton in weight. After an hour, they managed to subdue it, and since it was almost the size of their tiny sport boat, they couldn't haul it onboard, and so they dragged it behind them, and had a beer. While it was dragging behind their boat, some huge, dark shape started to follow them. Then the carcass of the shark was yanked down sharply, and then only the head of the shark bobbed back up. You also saw part of its tail drifiting away. I don't know what the hell it was, but in ONE BITE it ripped oout most of the middle of the shark, which meant its jaws must have been over five meters across. I will never swim in the open ocean as long as I live after seeing that shit.

And now, neither will I. He also said some people he grew up with caught a deep sea ribbon fish (oarfish [thejump.net]?) that was over 40 feet long. He said he didn't care what anyone said, that thing was a sea serpent if he ever saw one.

Re:Unchartered?

[JaredOfEuropa (526365)]

"I'm thinking that should be uncharted, as in no charts have been drawn up mapping it..."

Kiff (sighing): "It's not uncharted, captain, you lost the chart". (Futurama)

Re:Opened can of sea spam

[scottennis (225462)]

I read somewhere that the big blob that washed up on the coast of Chile was one of Pamela Anderson's old implants.

Re:the devil

[eclectic4 (665330)]

I was thinking the same thing. I saw a bunch of guys showing the "things" they killed.

I would have much rather seen images of them in their habitat. Creatures from the deep sea just do not look the same dead and surfaced. They're flat, discolored, etc... have you ever seen a squid laying on the floor of a boat? It's jelly body look like a blob, not the magnificant creature it "was" swimming in it's habitat, so I'm not sure why showing us images of dead deep sea creatures was the preferred method of display here. I'm sure there were some great underwater shots of the same creatures...right?

I watch those deep sea exploration shows and they will find 2-3 new species of sea creature every dive. They say that the deep sea has more species of animals undiscovered than all known species to date, terrestrial life included. We know more about space, and the planets in the solar system than we do about life in the deep sea.

It's all very cool stuff.

Cyrano was real, though.

[Medievalist (16032)]

In the Pacific Spookfish caption it says:

"In the USA it is known as a Long-nosed Chimaera while in Europe they use the common name Cyrano Chimaera, named after the fictional French character Cyrano de Bergerac, who had a very long nose"

Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-1655) is not a fictional character.

I emailed this nitpick in to the website, with a few details of de Bergerac's biography. Perhaps it will be fixed anon.