(Greg Rouse from Scripps Institute of Oceanography)
Under the "who knew?!" category, four new species of worms were discovered at the bottom of the east Pacific ocean. Far away from any particle of light, at 3,281 feet, they sport fantastic, iridescent scales; thus their nickname the "Elvis Worms" after the Rock and Roll King Elvis Presley. Just another example of why we need to increase our knowledge of our oceans - at all depths. I want to know - why ARE they so colorful if no other creature (including their own) ever sees them?
On a similar track, check out this amazing new jellyfish, spotted as part of the Five Deeps Expedition, an ambitious project of Explorer Victor Vescovo to dive in his titanic submarine to the deepest point in our 5 basins of the global ocean. The project was completed in September 2019 and is worth checking out https://www.popsci.com/five-deeps-vescovo-dive/ and at the Five Deeps website at https://www.fivedeeps.com.
To put this expedition in perspective, in the last 60 years there have been 6 dives in total to the deepest part of the ocean. Here's to hoping there's many more billionnaires who are interested in reaching out to study the least studied part of our planet earth.
1960: Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard, in the bathyscaphe Trieste, made the first manned descent into the Challenger Deep and reached the bottom at 10,916 meters (35,814 ft) in the “Western Pool.”
2012: Canadian filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence James Cameron, in the DSV Deepsea Challenger, reached the bottom at 10,908 meters (35,787 ft) the “Eastern Pool.”
2019: Businessman, explorer and retired naval officer Victor Vescovo, in the DSV Limiting Factor, made two dives in the “Eastern Pool” and reached a maximum depth of 10,925 meters (35,843 feet).
2019: Triton Submarine president, Patrick Lahey, in the DSV Limiting Factor, made two dives to the bottom, one in the Eastern Pool and one in the Central Pool.
OK, my third cool thing is found only at the very SURFACE of the ocean, the mighty Sea Skater (Halobates sp.). You can read about it here https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/it-practically-hovering-air?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=explorations_June20 as the ocean's ONLY insect. It has been the life work of marine biologist Dr. Lanna Cheng at Scripps institute of Oceanography. I met her back in 1983 or 84 at Scripps when I was working on a summer student research project with the late professor Dr. Lewin, her husband. Cheng was the "first to discover the unique body covering of Halobates which consisted of densely packed tiny hairs measuring 1.5 microns in length. This hair layer acts like an air bubble surrounding the insect". The mushroom-like structure of the hairs along with wax secreted by the insect are the focus of a research team out of Saudi Arabia in developing new liquid repellant technologies; a greener approach to reducing friction drag on water vehicles and fouling of membranes. Another great example of the power of a relatively new industry termed Biomimicry, using techniques that nature has already figured out.
Always fun to learn new stuff....new worms how cool....