Source: EarthSky
Author: Sandra Brooke
When people think of coral reefs, they typically picture warm, clear waters with brightly colored corals and fishes. But other corals live in deep, dark, cold waters, often far from shore in remote locations. These varieties are just as ecologically important as their shallow water counterparts. They also are just as vulnerable to human activitieslike fishing and energy production.
Continue reading Huge previously-undetected coral reef off US East Coast
Source: National Geographic
Author: Sarah Gibbens
It felt a lot like a moon landing to the researchers who experienced it—descending thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean into complete darkness. Ambient ocean light extends down only about 600 feet. After that, no amount of straining your eyes will help you see through the inky blackness.
Scientist Tim Shank and photographer Luis Lamar were descending into Lydonia canyon, one of several among the canyons and underwater mountains sitting 130 miles from Massachusetts, when they were slowly surrounded by darkness.
Continue reading Exclusive photos show deep-sea canyon in U.S. waters teeming with life
Source: The Conversation
Author: Sandra Brooke
When people think of coral reefs, they typically picture warm, clear waters with brightly colored corals and fishes. But other corals live in deep, dark, cold waters, often far from shore in remote locations. These varieties are just as ecologically important as their shallow water counterparts. They also are just as vulnerable to human activities like fishing and energy production.
Continue reading Deepwater corals thrive at the bottom of the ocean, but can’t escape human impacts
Source: Mongabay
Author: Emily Clark
When Luiz Rocha, a fish biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, goes scuba diving, he tacks on one and a half times his body weight in specialized diving gear. Once he submerges, he can’t spare a moment to take in the vibrant corals just beneath the surface — he has greater depths to plumb.
Rocha is headed toward what Smithsonian Institution fish biologist Carole Baldwin calls “a very diverse and productive portion of the tropical ocean that science has largely missed”: mesophotic reefs. “Mesophotic” is Greek for “middle light,” referring to the intermediate amount of sunlight that can penetrate to depths of 30 to 150 meters (100 to 500 feet) below the ocean’s surface.
Continue reading Are deep sea reefs really a lifeboat for our vanishing corals?
Source: Nature
Author: L. Chapron, E. Peru, A. Engler, J. F. Ghiglione, A. L. Meistertzheim, A. M. Pruski, A. Purser, G. Vétion, P. E. Galand & F. Lartaud
Plastic contamination is now recognized as one of the most serious environmental issues for oceans. Both macro- and microplastic debris are accumulating in surface and deep waters. However, little is known about their impact on deep marine ecosystems and especially on the deep-sea reefs built by emblematic cold-water corals. The aim of this study was to investigate whether plastics affected the growth, feeding and behaviour of the main engineer species, Lophelia pertusa. Our experiments showed that both micro- and macroplastics significantly reduced skeletal growth rates. Macroplastics induced an increased polyp activity but decreased prey capture rates. They acted as physical barriers for food supply, likely affecting energy acquisition and allocation.
Continue reading Macro- and microplastics affect cold-water corals growth, feeding and behaviour
Source: Business Insider
Author: Jeremy Berke
The seafloor is one of the last unexplored regions of our watery planet.
On a recent expedition dubbed Deep Search 2018, a group of ocean researchers discovered 85 miles of deep-sea coral reef off the coast of the southeastern US.
“Good news is too rare these days, and this is a victory that we can all share. We have found a pristine coral reef in our own backyard,” Erik Cordes, the chief scientist on the expedition and a deep-sea ecologist at Temple University, wrote in a mission summary.
Source: Hakai Magazine
Author: Marcus Woo
Recent research suggests fisheries closures would have minimal effect on global food security, but some scientists think the case isn’t so clear cut.
Far offshore are the high seas—waters beyond any country’s jurisdiction and the focus of a contentious debate. The high seas, which cover nearly two-thirds of the ocean’s surface, have recently seen an increase in fishing and other activities, such as deep-sea mining. To protect the biodiversity of this vast environment, delegates attending a meeting currently underway in New York are negotiating for a new international treaty, an addition to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Continue reading Closing the High Seas to Fishing Probably Won’t Hurt Global Food Security
Fisheries, environmental, and Indigenous organizations announced the launch of a music video “Guardians of Tariuq” starring school children from Nunavut and celebrating the protection of special places in the deep waters off the coast of Nunavut and Labrador
Continue reading Nunavut kids star in music video to help protect the Arctic
Source: EcoWatch
Author: Nathan Johnson
The deep sea might be cold and dark, but it’s not barren. Down here, an incredible diversity of corals shelters young fish like grouper, snapper and rockfish. Sharks, rays and other species live and feed here their whole lives.
Continue reading Ignoring Deep-Sea Corals Is Risky for the Oceans, and for Us
Source: National Geographic
Author: Sarah Gibbens
The underwater footage shows a rare look at the thriving deep-sea life contained in the Gulf of Mexico’s dark depths.
Continue reading This ‘Secret Garden’ of Coral May Be 1,000 Years Old
