Scientistsusing cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed bycolorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor - includingplate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous.
They predicted Thursday that as many as 40 new plant and animal species mayhave been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.
More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs, captured using a roboticvehicle with high-definition cameras, were piped to shore in real-time bysatellite and high-speed Internet.
Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, saidthe images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe's mostcomplex and little-known marine ecosystems.
"Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now arerare," she said in a written statement. "I've only seen a few in mycareer. But on this expedition, I was amazed to see them in greatdiversity."
Likewise, Tunnicliffe has also seen sea spiders before, but those were tiny incomparison, all around one-inch (2.5 centimeters) long: "The sea spiders... on this mission were huge. Eight-inches (20-centimeters) or moreacross."
One animal captured on video looks like a flower, covered with glasslikeneedles, but scientists think it is probably a carnivorous sponge. The spikes,covered with sticky tissue, appear to capture food as it passes by.
Scientists used powerful sonar mapping system and the robotic vehicle toexplore nearly 21,000 square miles (54,000 sq. kilometers) of sea floor offnorthern Indonesia, at depths ranging from 800 feet (240 meters) to over twomiles (1.6 kilometers).
The mission was carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration's ship, the Okeanos Explorer. An Indonesian vessel, the BarunaJaya IV, also took part, collecting specimens that, together with all rightsfor future use, will remain in the country.
They predicted Thursday that as many as 40 new plant and animal species mayhave been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14.
More than 100 hours of video and 100,000 photographs, captured using a roboticvehicle with high-definition cameras, were piped to shore in real-time bysatellite and high-speed Internet.
Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor at the University of Victoria in Canada, saidthe images provided an extraordinary glimpse into one of the globe's mostcomplex and little-known marine ecosystems.
"Stalked sea lilies once covered the ocean, shallow and deep, but now arerare," she said in a written statement. "I've only seen a few in mycareer. But on this expedition, I was amazed to see them in greatdiversity."
Likewise, Tunnicliffe has also seen sea spiders before, but those were tiny incomparison, all around one-inch (2.5 centimeters) long: "The sea spiders... on this mission were huge. Eight-inches (20-centimeters) or moreacross."
One animal captured on video looks like a flower, covered with glasslikeneedles, but scientists think it is probably a carnivorous sponge. The spikes,covered with sticky tissue, appear to capture food as it passes by.
Scientists used powerful sonar mapping system and the robotic vehicle toexplore nearly 21,000 square miles (54,000 sq. kilometers) of sea floor offnorthern Indonesia, at depths ranging from 800 feet (240 meters) to over twomiles (1.6 kilometers).
The mission was carried out by the U.S. National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration's ship, the Okeanos Explorer. An Indonesian vessel, the BarunaJaya IV, also took part, collecting specimens that, together with all rightsfor future use, will remain in the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment