The Deep - Images from the exhibition

Grimpoteuthis sp.

Dumbo octopus

This amusing little octopus almost seems like a character out of a Japanese cartoon. Researchers have already described fourteen species of Grimpoteuthis, but beyond the taxonomic description made on the basis of animals captured by trawlers, these octopuses for the most part are still enigmatic. They are often observed resting on the bottom, with their mantle spread around them. What are they doing there, sitting so quietly in the dark? Nobody knows.

Jelly Benthocodon sp.

This jelly is generally found swimming very near the bottom. Most likely its myriad tentacles (between 1000 and 2000) are used to capture small benthic crustaceans.

Stauroteuthis syrtensis

Glowing sucker octopus

Size: up to 50 cm

Depth: 700–2500 m

The ocean depths harbor a particular group of octopuses that do not exist on the surface: the finned octopuses. Their body is made of a delicate, gelatinous matter that recalls the consistency of jellies. Light passes through to their internal organs, giving them a diaphanous, luminous appearance.

This finned octopus often inflates itself into the form of a tutu. This bell-shape posture may correspond to a resting position, but it may also indicate some sort of predator defense, which would not be surprising, considering what an aggressive intrusion it must seem to have some noisy, flashy machine barging into the quiet of one’s retreat.

Evolution Caught Red-Handed :

The evolution of life is a huge puzzle, of which the Stauroteuthis syrtensis octopus is a very important piece. It is one of the rare octopuses that can produce a luminous emission from its suckers. While other octopuses use these to adhere to the substrate or to overcome resistant prey like bivalves, the glowing sucker octopus found another use for them as it adapted to the completely new conditions of life in the deep. It gets around the problem of food supply by luring prey, rather than chasing them in the awkward darkness of the deep. This creature lives some dozens or hundreds of meters above the bottom, which is why it does not need adhesive suckers; instead, they have evolved into small individual lanterns. This strategy is particularly well adapted to its diet; it feeds almost exclusively on copepods, small and very abundant planktonic crustaceans with excellent eyesight that are attracted to light sources like insects are to headlights. Stauroteuthis syrtensis secretes a mucous net that it holds between its arms with the help of its cirri—slender fingerlike appendages lining the underside of its mantle. When crustaceans approach the bioluminescent glow, they get trapped in the sticky net. Like whales, which feed on plankton, this creature also has to go for quantity in order to compensate for the small size of its prey. Although bioluminescent photophores are widespread in other cephalopods like cuttlefishes and squids, it is extremely rare among octopuses. Studying the origins and evolution of bioluminescence poses a real challenge, because there is no fossil record indicating how the organs have been modified or altered from their primary function to produce light. The glowing sucker octopus helps us understand how animals originally living near the surface successfully colonized the ocean depths, a critical phase in the evolution of deep-sea species.

Careproctus longifilis

Threadfin snailfish

Size: 15 cm

Depth: 1900 to 2997 m

Like a prehistoric tadpole popping suddenly before the ROV camera, this fish with its face perforated of large sensory pores seems to confirm the deep sea’s myth as a haven for fossil creatures that have remained unchanged since the dawn of time. Despite its strange looks, the threadfin snailfish does not number among the oldest sentinels of our planet, as do the horseshoe crab and the coelacanth, whose fossil records date back more than 250 million years.

Riftia pachyptila

Giant tube worm

Size: up to 2 m

Depth: 2000 to 2850 m

Up until 1979, whenever one thought about worms, the image of a colorless earthworm came immediately to mind, but the discovery of the giant, sublimely colored creatures living around hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific abruptly changed that view. These astonishing creatures live in symbiosis with the chemosynthetic bacteria that shoulder the responsibility for providing the worms their meals. It took the specialists a while to understand the functioning of the animal, which at first they believed to be a filter feeder. Robert D. Ballard remembers their incredulity: “With no eyes, no mouth, or any other obvious organs for ingesting food or secreting waste, and no means of locomotion, it was no worm, snake or eel, but no plant either – the strangest creature we had ever seen.”

American submersible « Johnson Sea Link-1 » from The Harbor Branch Research Institute.

The JOHNSON-SEA-LINK-I manned submersible is devoted primarily to research in the marine sciences, and has a maximum operating depth of 3,000 feet. The forward five-inch thick acrylic sphere accommodates the pilot and an observer at "one atmosphere," and allows panoramic visibility. A second crew member and another observer occupy the after observation chamber where a video monitor and side view ports provide forward and side observation.

This sophisticated and highly maneuverable free swimming submersible has been in operation since 1971. Maintained and operated by experienced and expert pilots and crews, they are further supported by in-house ocean engineers.

Copyright notice: Royalty-free images from the book and exhibition THE DEEP. Information about the pictures and copyrights to be reproduced NEXT TO EACH IMAGE.

Date Created: 06/05/10

Date Updated: 17/01/11