Scientists Travel to Unexplored Area of Atlantic Ocean and Photograph Bizarre Deep-Sea Creatures

ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute

Researchers spent 35 days exploring a remote, mountainous stretch of the Atlantic Ocean where tectonic fractures constantly reshape the seafloor and bizarre animals thrive.

Science Alert reports that the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, based in California, recently explored an area of the Atlantic Ocean called the Doldrums Megatransform and Fracture Zone.

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) The Childlike Empress, cruising alongside Research Vessel Falkor (too), before diving thousands of meters below the ocean’s surface on a mapping mission.

This 23,000 square-mile-region (60,000 square kilometers) is roughly the same size as Lake Michigan and sits across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the world’s longest mountain chain that plunges tens of thousands of feet into the pitch-black layer of the ocean known as the abyssal zone.

From their base on the research vessel “Falkor,” scientists used a remotely controlled underwater vehicle named “SuBastian” and an autonomous sub called “The Childlike Empress” to explore the remote areas beneath the waves.

A “black-smoker” hydrothermal vent was found in one of the two new fields discovered in the Doldrums Megatransform and Fracture Zone. This large, tectonically active system cuts across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and is one of the least explored areas of the Atlantic Ocean. “Black smoker” hydrothermal vents form when superheated, mineral-rich water escapes from beneath the Earth’s crust, instantly precipitating dark minerals in contact with frigid, deep-sea water.

Deep-sea hydrothermal vent shrimp swarm on a mineral chimney, positioning themselves where chemical-rich hydrothermal fluids mix with oxygenated seawater. Symbiotic chemosynthetic bacteria living on and within the shrimp use these chemicals as an energy source, providing the shrimp with their primary source of nutrition. As sunlight cannot reach these depths, these specialized ecosystems rely entirely on chemosynthesis, a process in which bacteria convert chemicals emitted from vents into usable energy, forming the base of the deep-sea food web.

The crew discovered two previously unknown hydrothermal fields that sit at a depth of 13,123 feet (4,000 meters) and support life by venting out magma heat into the freezing cold ocean. The researchers observed shrimp, crabs, and anemones close to the chimneys created by the vents. But larger, more intriguing species were also captured by the subs.

The rare barreleye fish was spotted over 2,000 feet below the surface (710 meters), and it marked the first time ever that the species had been filmed in its natural environment. Science Alert notes that the fish’s forehead dome is extremely delicate and collapses when hauled from the water.

This is the first footage of a binocular fish, a type of barreleye, alive in its natural environment.

This deep-sea barreleye fish is famous for its translucent head and tubular eyes. Most knowledge of this family of fish is based on samples collected with fishing nets, a process that typically damages delicate specimens on the way to the surface.

A deep-sea isopod, Bathyopsurus nybelini, carries a piece of sunken seaweed. Observations of this animal are rare, but scientists believe B. nybelini has adapted to exploit a resource that links the ocean surface to the deep seafloor: sargassum, a brown macroalgae (seaweed) found throughout tropical waters. When pieces eventually sink to the seafloor, they become food for specialized animals living thousands of meters deep, creating a direct connection between life at the surface and life in the deep sea.

Also spotted in the deep was a bizarre bigfin squid, the deepest-dwelling squid in the world that has tentacles reaching up to 25 feet (eight meters),.

Observed at over two miles beneath the surface, the bigfin squid is an eerie deep-sea creature.

Its tentacles are thread-like.

“We arrived searching for vents, faults, and seamounts. We leave with something even more valuable: a deeper understanding of ecosystems in one of the least explored regions of the Atlantic Ocean,” says Dr. Paula Zapata Ramirez, assistant professor at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana. “Every sample, every image, and every discovery brings us one step closer to understanding the hidden parts of our planet.”

“Mapping almost 147 kilometers squared at 1-meter resolution during our first AUV The Childlike Empress science mission with this team of experts rapidly uncovered hidden wonders of the deep sea,” adds Schmidt Ocean Institute Executive Director Dr. Jyotika Virmani. “Serpentinization is a process in which seawater reacts with minerals in rocks, producing heat and chemical energy that allow life to thrive in the deep ocean without sunlight, so a better understanding of these systems could provide clues for finding life on other planets.”

Image credits: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute