Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss

22-Nov-2009

Census of Marine Life

Washington DC
Deep sea teeming with species that have never known sunlight

NOVEMBER 29, 2009Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight – creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid black world down to 5,000 meters (~3 miles) below the ocean waves.
Revealed via deep-towed cameras, sonar and other vanguard technologies, animals known to thrive in an eternal watery darkness now number 17,650, a diverse collection of species ranging from crabs to shrimp to worms. Most have adapted to diets based on meager droppings from the sunlit layer above, others to diets of bacteria that break down oil, sulfur and methane, the sunken bones of dead whales and other implausible foods.

 

Full release:

Coverage summary: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AlbF9zth54L8dHRuNXJ3ZWNmUnlRNTlpODR4b09Ya1E&hl=en

Example coverage by CNN, click here; more sources, click here