Deep sea fishes gallery

It also showed to politicians, fishers, and tourism operators the danger of taking marine resources for granted (Adler 2019). The deep sea has long occupied a special place in the human imagination, seen as exotic, empty, otherworldly—a kind of earthly outer space. It is precisely the perceived absence of humans in the deep sea, coupled with the opaque materiality of water, that helps sustain the enduring notion of the ocean as a frontier space (Ratté 2019). Museum curator Andrea Quattrini has spent her career using submarines and remotely operated vehicles to document coral reefs and the species that call these underwater “forests” home.
Despite the low temperatures, extreme ambient pressures, absence of sunlight and low resource availability, it supports a rich abundance of life in an array of unique ecosystems. The Deep Vision project – run by Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth – will study ecosystems such as cold-water coral reefs and sponge fields in the Atlantic. For photo and video coverage from the depths, we employ camera systems, which are connected to the ship by a specially designed fibre optic and power cable and are towed just over the seafloor as the ship moves through the water.
In the months and years after a whale fall the site will become the home and food source for millions of creatures. But the ocean floor consists of more than just the flat and seemingly vacant abyssal plain. Pockets of life thrive when food is available, and often these distinct deep sea communities rely on alternate sources of chemical energy that do not originate from the sun—they have figured a way to make do with what they get.
Researchers documented nearly 30,000 of such organisms, especially those living between 7,000 to 10,000m (22,700 to 32,000ft) below the sea. Their findings revealed that seafloor ecosystems are shaped by depth, food supply, seismic activity, as well as the seafloor’s structure. The intrinsic long-term benefits of a healthy ocean far outweigh any short-term incentives offered by deep seabed mining. Opening up this new frontier for extraction would destabilize delicate ocean ecosystems and fatally undermine the foundations of a circular ocean economy.

Warty deep-sea octopus

Even in remote regions like the floor of Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, the number of these large bits of litter has grown substantially in recent years. When the ice melts, the plastic drifts down to the deep sea, where it can be ingested by various organisms. In 1999, the institute established a long-term observatory in Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard.
The deep sea is one of our planet’s most mysterious and least explored regions. It covers more than 60% of Earth’s surface and is crucial in regulating the planet’s climate, supporting marine biodiversity, and even influencing human life. Despite its significance, the deep sea remains largely unexplored due to its extreme conditions, such as complete darkness, crushing pressure, and freezing temperatures. The deep sea is not only a source of scientific curiosity but also a potential source of valuable resources. Deep-sea mining, the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor, has gained attention in recent years due to the increasing demand for metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and rare earth elements.

Animals of the Deep

While coral reefs in shallow water are well studied and loved by people, very little is known about their deep sea relatives. We do know that many commercially important species like shrimps, crabs, groupers, rockfish, and snappers rely on deep sea coral reefs for shelter, but this is only based upon a limited number of studies and dives. Scientists, including Quattrini, continue to discover additional species that call deep sea coral reefs home, showing that there is still much to learn about the deep sea. In the Arctic, living at the bottom of the sea poses unique challenges for a range of organisms. For one thing, at temperatures down to minus 1 °C, the water is especially cold, even by deep-sea standards.

Is Deep-Sea Mining Necessary?

In addition, fish rely on their lateral line organ, which allows them to detect even the smallest changes in currents and pressure to locate obstacles or other animals moving nearby. And last but not least, many deep-sea organisms have large eyes, helping them pick up the tiny amounts of residual light in the water or the light signals put out by other fauna. A seamount is an underwater mountain that can rise thousands of feet above the seafloor.
If Mount Everest (8,848 m or 29,029 ft or 5.498 mi) were submerged there, its peak would be more than 2 km (1.2 mi) beneath the surface. In 1513, trying to secure that channel to Portugal, Afonso de Albuquerque laid siege to Aden21 but was forced to retreat. They cruised the Red Sea inside the Bab al-Mandab, as the first fleet from Europe in modern times to have sailed these waters. Later in 1524, the city was delivered to Governor Heitor da Silveira as an agreement for protection from the Ottomans.22In 1798, France ordered General Napoleon to invade Egypt and take control of the Red Sea. Although he failed in his mission, the engineer Jean-Baptiste Lepère, who took part in it, revitalised the plan for a canal which had been envisaged during the reign of the Pharaohs.

• Even in remote regions like the floor of Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard, the number of these large bits of litter has grown substantially in recent years.
• This entry aims to encourage deeper engagement with this ethnographic realm, asserting the importance of claiming a voice within both scientific discourse and broader societal debates.
• Up to 190 different types of these bacteria have been found on a single whale carcass, and up to 20 percent of those are also found living around hydrothermal vents.
• IEA estimates that significantly scaling up recycling could reduce the need for newly mined minerals by 40% for copper and nickel and 25% for lithium and cobalt by 2050.
• 2025 was the year many countries set their deadlines to begin commercial deep-sea mining, making the coming months critical as parties wait for the ISA and global regulations to emerge.
• To reduce potential impacts, the authors recommend discharging plumes below 2,000 m (about 6,600 ft), or even directly at the seafloor.

Welcome to the Knowledge Hub

The deep sea is a realm of endless mystery and wonder, offering vast opportunities for scientific discovery and technological innovation. Despite the challenges of exploring this extreme environment, advancements in technology have enabled us to uncover some of its secrets and begin to understand its importance to the Earth’s systems. As we continue to explore the deep sea, it is essential to balance the potential benefits of resource extraction with the need to protect and preserve this unique and fragile environment.

This will give local scientists and managers the ability to collect the data themselves for the first time, data that they need to make decisions about deep-sea ecosystem management. Though fish can be found at all depths, their density is far lower in the bottom-most layers. In the open ocean, you can find e.g. the bizarre deep-sea anglerfishes, which live at depths of ca. The females have an organic “fishing rod” complete with bait attached to their heads, and in many species, the bait actually glows.
Whale bone consists of roughly 60 percent fat by weight, up to 200 times the amount of nutrients typically found at the seafloor. Specially adapted worms and snails take advantage of this feast by boring into the inner bone with acid and absorbing the fats inside with the help of bacteria. The worms, called Osedax worms, ride ocean currents as larvae and then settle on the exposed bone. The first of these larvae develop into females, with one end tunneling into the bone and forming what looks like roots growing through the bone.

• The ISA was established in 1982 by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and a 1994 Agreement connected to UNCLOS.
• Proponents of deep-sea mining argue that it can help meet the world’s pressing need for critical minerals, which will likely only continue to grow as countries invest more in decarbonization, digitization, defense and infrastructure.
• After failing to reach an agreement at previous meetings, the ISA was due to finalize regulations for commercial mining in July 2025.
• Larvae that arrive later or land on another worm, become males, but never really grow beyond the larval form.
• Some are specialized burrowers that dig within the bone for the fat, while others pick apart the surface layers.
• Despite being the largest global coal producer, China is a net importer of all forms of fossil fuels.
• In addition to feeding, creatures of the deep use light in flashy displays meant to attract mates.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has historically regulated global involvement in deep-sea activities. The ISA was established in 1982 by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and a 1994 Agreement connected to UNCLOS. Under the ISA, countries are free to mine within their domestic waters and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), which extend a country’s control over natural resource exploitation to 200 nautical miles (230 Deep Sea miles) from its coastline.
Each of these unique creatures embodies the resilience and adaptability of life, and their survival is essential to the health of our planet. The Deep-seas group at Cefas (Deep-Seafas) is a team of ecologists, oceanographers, biogeochemists, and more who study the deep-sea and provide scientific advice, principally to the UK Government and to international management bodies. We also work heavily with the UK Overseas Territories, and the Governments of Small Island Developing States, whose waters can be almost entirely in the deep-sea. As well as providing a source of food for an abundance of ocean creatures, seamounts are a spawning ground for numerous species of fish.