Dr. Edie Widder did it again! With her colleague, Dr. Nathan Robinson, Edie used her MEDUSA camera platform to capture video of a live giant squid deep in the Gulf of Mexico during a recent NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research-supported cruise. This is the first recording of a live giant squid in the Gulf of Mexico (Atlantic Ocean, for that matter), and only the second such filming ever. Of course, the first was done by none other than…  Dr. Widder, who also captured the first-ever footage of a live giant squid in the waters off Japan. The research cruise, entitled “Journey into Midnight: Life and Light Below the Twilight Zone,” was led by Dr. Sönke Johnsen of Duke University. Please read Sönke’s story here. Regarding DEEPEND, five of the twelve scientists onboard were DEEPENDers, including Co-PIs Tammy Frank, Heather Judkins, Heather Bracken-Grissom, Danté Fenolio, and DEEPEND Director/PI Tracey Sutton. Dr. Heather Judkins was first to identify the animal in the video as a giant squid, with this diagnosis later confirmed by DEEPEND Co-PI Dr. Michael Vecchione. Adding to the DEEPEND vibe was the fact that the cruise was conducted on the R/V Point Sur (University of Southern Mississippi, operated by LUMCON), on which all of the DEEPEND deep-trawling efforts have been based. Spectacular ship-time services, as always.

The giant squid story has been a global media sensation, featured by the NOAA Office of Exploration and Research; Discovery Channel; NY Times; Washington Post; USA Today; OCEANX; and CNN, among hundreds of others.

In addition to MEDUSA deployments, the Journey into Midnight science team had a number of other exploratory operations, including midwater trawling below 1000 m depth, ROV video transects with specimen collection, and shipboard measurements of the vision, bioluminescence, and reflectivity (color) of animals inhabiting the bathypelagic realm, earth’s largest and least-explored habitat. With respect to trawling, Dr. Sutton collected specimens for 14 ongoing projects, demonstrating the importance of sampling in addition to observation. Without such sampling, taxonomy (the science of knowing what species you are observing) would not be possible! We would instead be left wondering, “Oooh, that thing in the video looked so cool! What was it?” In total, 129 fish, 57 crustacean, and 13 squid species were collected, including many rare species, some of which we suspect are new records or new to science.

Among other scientific achievements of the cruise, Drs. Sutton and Fenolio were able to record the bioluminescence display of the Threadfin Dragonfish (Echiostoma barbatum) – something so fantastic it is hard to believe it is real.  Owing to the skilled collection abilities of the ROV pilots, many specimens made it to the surface in near perfect condition, allowing for a range of high-resolution anatomical studies. With respect to vision in the midnight zone, a primary aim of the crustacean survey was to assess the ability of deep-sea shrimps to visually identify each other (i.e., conspecific recognition). Achieving this aim included measuring eye size to body length ratios across 15 species of shrimp, modeling the distances at which their bioluminescent signals remain detectable, and predicting the appearance of these signals in context of their visual acuity.

So, from all of the DEEPEND team, our deepest congratulations to Edie and Nathan! This was a testament to your hard work and ingenuity!

The DEEPEND Consortium just had an image from their field work make the cover of one of the most significant scientific journals in the world - Science. Dr. Fenolio took the image during one of the research cruises out on the Gulf of Mexico. The deep-sea fish featured on the cover possesses highly modified eyes and the article in the journal depicts how some deep-sea fishes can see in color (it was thought they were color-blind, only seeing shades of blue). More on the fish featured on the cover: This fish, the tube-eye (Stylephorus chordatus), is known from tropical and subtropical waters across the world’s oceans. One hypothesis explaining the strange binocular eyes is that the structures serve as an adaptation helping these fish detect faint bioluminescence in the dark depths of the oceans - where this species is found. The light these animals might be looking for would be produced by small crustaceans (copepods) that they target as food items. Remotely operated vehicles and subs documenting the deep-sea fauna have captured this species oriented vertically in the water column. It is also believed that this species is part of the “deep scattering layer” (DSL) – a community of marine organisms that migrate from deeper waters toward the surface every night, where they feed in the productive epipelagic zone under the cover of darkness. At dawn, the DSL heads back down to deeper and darker waters. Interestingly, this DSL represents the largest migration of wildlife on Earth and said migration takes place every day. One other oddity involving the DSL, it is entirely reliant on ambient light conditions to begin their movements toward and away from the ocean’s surface. During an eclipse of the sun, the DSL was documented to start moving toward the surface!

On April 18th, an art exhibit was opened at the Nelson Poynter Library on the USFSP campus to highlight work that USF System researchers have been conducting related to the DWH oil spill. DEEPEND and C-Image scientists gathered with the public to discuss current findings and answer questions related to our work. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our science and link it through the arts which included twenty images taken by Dante Fenolio for the DEEPEND portion of the exhibit.

DEEPEND will be joining several other non-profit organizations focused on ocean conservation to educate fans and promote ways to save our oceans. The festival will take place in the sand on Fort Lauderdale Beach this weekend April 12-14. Fans will be able to learn about life in the deep-sea and the creatures that live there by playing some interactive games and conversing with our outreach coordinators. They will also have a chance to share their knowledge on social media in our photo booth while making a pledge to help #RockTheOcean. Be sure to get your official glow-in-the-dark DEEPEND anglerfish tattoo!

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