The End?!

The end of the first Ship2Shore Marine Educator program for Wiring the Abyss 2012.

I am grateful for every moment; connecting with students and educators, meeting awesome people on board, fascinating ROPOS dives, Pogo's first success, amazing hydrothermal vents, lava structures, tubeworms, old water, dolphin shows, sharks, whales, ship life, sunsets, the ocean, everything...

NEPTUNE Canada: Wiring the Abyss 2012 crew (opposite shifts are missing)

As a doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction in science education, I see a great value in incorporating marine science into the K-12 education. Ocean Networks Canada with the Ship2Shore Marine Educator program continues to be a world leader in marine educational outreach and I am honoured to have participated as the marine educator aboard.

For further questions and feedback, please contact oceaned@uvic.ca

Cheers!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Life on ship!

2 weeks on a ship!

What does life look like and feel like if you live on a research vessel for two weeks?

R/V Thomas G. Thompson

The first question came into my mind was water... There were drinking fountains everywhere and water was not an issue. How do you maintain drinking water supplies on this ship? Interestingly, all the water used for drinking, cooking, laundry, cleaning, sanitation etc. all is originally ocean water, which is produced by the reverse osmosis system. So we had a good quality of water on board for all purposes.

There are air conditioners and ventilators working 24 hours on the ship, so there is a constant sound of air conditioners in the background all the time. During the dives, the R/V needs to hold its position. For that, the ship uses two bow thrusters and two main drive systems to keep the position. There is always the ambient sound of machinery in the background.

Cruising when it is rough might be tough, it may cause nausea. If it is light, just in case, I recommend a non-chemical treatment. It is the sea-bands which applies pressure on the certain accupressure points on each wrist. This accupressure point is called Nei-Kuan! Thanks to Stephen Farrington, I just learned about it on this trip:)

Sea-bands work

 
There is something very special for the R/V Thomas G. Thompson! The food is super-ultra-mega amazingly delicious!! Everybody is talking about how they will miss the food on the ship. The Chief Steward Sarah Wicker worked as a Chief for 30 years in many different places in the US and Canada. Actually, Sarah and her husband Grey lived on a sailboat for 26 years cruising world-wide on the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean. They have two daughters and they were home-schooled, sorry, boat-schooled until high school. Now, their daughters are two happy, beautiful and successful women. Sarah, Grey and the second cook India are wonderful people!

Grey, Sarah, and India blessed us with the food they prepared

Another thing on board which is taken for granted is, there is no day off on boat, so it is hard to keep track which day it is, even what time it is, since in NEPTUNE Canada there are people working shifts 24 hours a day. Even early morning, for instance around 5am, can be as lively as during the day.

The boat is like your home, it really is like your own big house, since your stuff stays wherever you put them and you don't worry about locking things, your cabin doors. This big house has one garden that you cannot go in, but just look at. It is a unique garden which changes its shape and colors instantly in harmony with sky.

I really enjoyed having the Pacific Ocean as my garden during these two weeks.

Life is great on board!!

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Pogo visit

Yesterday was not only a successful day for Pogo, but also a beautiful day, as if the weather was celebrating Pogo's success with us. I went to see Pogo on a zodiac. Witnessing this historic achievement was a real privilege. Here are some photos from that wonderful, successful and delightful day!

The Leg 2 Chief Scientist and Associate Director of Science in NEPTUNE Canada, Kim Juniper and I had an interview about the process of deploying Pogo, being a scientist and how this world-wide achievement feels like as a scientist. After Pogo's first successful water column profiles, Kim Juniper congratulated the whole NEPTUNE Canada: Wiring the Abyss 2012 science team.

Once again, welcome Pogo!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Meet Pogo!!

!!! ROPOS and Wally have a new friend !!!

I am happy to announce the nickname of our VPS Vertical Profiling System:

POGO it is!

Actually, there were other nice candidates, but the final decision was Pogo and I personally think Pogo is the best one ever:) It is fun, easy and meaningful!

Pogo can stand for Profiling Oceano-Graphic Observatory as well.

Meet Pogo!

Pogo our new friend!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Compressed styrofoam cups!

In the distant lesson with Grade 3 students in Watkins Glen Elementary School, NY one of the subjects that we talked about was the notion of pressure in deep ocean. To demonstrate the impact of high pressure in deep water, I promised students to make compressed styrofoam cups in deep ocean. I wrote all the names of the students in two classes and painted a killer whale (orca) for them. The two styrofoam cups stayed in 2660 meters for 40 hours. It really was a long dive in such a depth and I was a bit worried about the cups, what if they would shrink too much that nothing on the cup will be readable anymore. We finally took ROPOS on deck with the cups. I was so happy to see them; they both turned out to be great!! Here is the picture of styrofoam cups, before and after:

Styrofoam cup original size, compressed size

Before the dive both cups were the same size, with a height of 12cm. After the dive the cup was compressed exactly to its half size; 6cm.

The two compressed cups will be mailed to the teachers Mrs. Wickham and Mrs. Hazlitt in Watkins Glen Elementary School, NY as a mementos of our Pacific to Atlantic coast virtual class.

Cheers from NEPTUNE Canada!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Periodic Table of the ocean!!

Have you ever heard about the periodic table of elements in the ocean?

Y. Nozaki from University of Tokyo created one! I think this is such a cool perodic table, which shows the vertical profiles of elements in the North Pacific Ocean!

Vertical profiles of elements in the North Pacific Ocean

For the complete article click here.


Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Nozaki, Y. (2001). Elemental Distribution Overview. Retrieved from http://elearning.zaou.ac.zm:8060/Science/Oceanography/Encyclopedia%20of%20Ocean%20Sciences/ELEMENTAL%20DISTRIBUTION%20-Overview.pdf

Conductivity of sea water

Conductivity of sea water depends strongly on temperature, somewhat less strongly on salinity, and very weakly on pressure. If the temperature is measured, then conductivity can be used to determine the salinity. Salinity as computed through conductivity appears to be more closely related to the actual dissolved constituents than is chlorinity, and more independent of salt composition. Therefore temperature must be measured at the same time as conductivity, to remove the temperature effect and obtain salinity.

How is conductivity for calculating salinity measured?

(1) For a seawater sample in the laboratory, an "autosalinometer" is used, which gives the ratio of conductivity of the seawater sample to a standard solution. The standard seawater solutions are either seawater from a particular place, or a standard KCl solution made in the laboratory. The latter provides greater accuracy and has recently become the standard. Because of the strong dependence of conductivity on temperature, the measurements must be carried out in carefully temperature-controlled conditions.

(2) From an electronic instrument in the water, either inductive or capacitance cells are used, depending on the instrument manufacturer. Temperature must also be measured, from a thermistor mounted close to the conductivity sensor. Calibration procedures include matching the temperature and conductivity sensor responses.

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Reference:

Properties of seawater. In SIO 210 Lynne Talley Lecture notes. Retrieved from http://sam.ucsd.edu/sio210/lect_2/lecture_2.html in June, 2012.

Salinity in ocean

Salinity is roughly the number of grams of dissolved matter per kilogram of seawater. This was the original definition, and at one time salinity was determined by evaporating the water and weighing the residual. The dissolved matter in seawater affects its density, hence the importance of measuring salinity.

The law of constant proportions (Dittmar, 1884), formalized the observation that the composition of the dissolved matter in seawater does not vary much from place to place.

Why constant proportions?

Salts come from weathering of continents and deep-sea vents, etc - the input is very very slow (order 100.000 years) compared with the mixing rate of the whole ocean (which is order 1000 years). Thus it is possible to measure just one component of the dissolved material and then estimate the total amount of dissolved material (salinity). This approach was used until the 1950's.

The main constituent of sea salt is Cl, the second largest is Na, followed by many other constituents. In actuality, there is a slight variation in the proportions, and recommendations are underway to formulate new definitions of salinity which depend on the actual constituents - this may likely take form of geographically-dependent tables of corrections to the quantity which is measured (usually conductivity).

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Reference:

Properties of seawater. In SIO 210 Lynne Talley Lecture notes. Retrieved from http://sam.ucsd.edu/sio210/lect_2/lecture_2.html in June, 2012.

For the first time in the world!!

Today was a significant day for Ocean Networks Canada! The VPS (Vertical Profiling System) was successfully raised to the surface in order to calibrate its instruments. This VPS is the first device in the world to measure the properties of the ocean using a mobile vertical profiling system.

The VPS surfaced the water

The VPS consists of a base platform that rests on the seafloor, and an instrumented float that can be raised and lowered through the water column. The onboard instruments generate water column profiles of salinity, temperature, dissolved gases, nutrients, dissolved organic matter, chlorophyll fluorescence, up/downwelling radiation, and currents. Plankton and fish are imaged with an echosounder and marine mammal vocalizations are detected with a hydrophone. These data also  support research on topics such as biological productivity, eastern boundary current physics, and plankton life cycles.

The VPS was deployed in the first leg of the cruise. Since its deployment, the engineering team was testing the winch, which is the crane mechanism controlling its up and down movements. They also tested other instruments, including CTD. They made the CTD tests for different depths and calibrated with the CTD that was on the ship. Today, for the first time VPS was extended to its full length and surfaced the water. Everything went perfectly well! Such a huge world-wide success for Ocean Networks Canada!

Today, Ocean Networks Canada demonstrated once again that it is the leading pioneer of ocean observatories in the world.

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator



Reference for VPS: NEPTUNE Canada Invitation to Science

Bioaccumulation in relation to food webs

Food chains show how energy is transferred through a series of living things, by the process of eating and being eaten. A food web is made up of several food chains. Living things that can use the energy of the sun and non-living things (inorganic material such as air, water, and dirt) to produce food (organic material) are called producers. In the sea, these include seaweeds and phytoplankton.

Living things that consume other living things for food are called consumers. Consumers that eat producers are called herbivores. Consumers that eat herbivores are called carnivores. Each of these steps is called a trophic level. As most animals eat more than one kind of thing, food webs can get quite complex, with each trophic level relying on the level below for sustenance. This complexity is what makes the tremendous diversity of life in the oceans possible. Changes at one trophic level, such as an increase in population, affects other trophic levels. No matter where living things might be on the chain, when they die, they end up being consumed by decomposers that convert the organic materials into simpler inorganic nutrients that can be used by producers.

Bioaccumulation

Roughly bioaccumulation means "you are what you eat."

All living things accumulate chemicals in their bodies through the air they breathe, food they eat or the water they drink or live in. Chemicals that are not used up or excreted can become concentrated in the body as one animal eats another in the food chain.

Marine mammals accumulate and store chemical pollutants in their fat. Many marine mammals eat other aquatic animals that have consumed pollutants. The toxins that their prey have consumed are accumulated by the mammalian predators and deposited in their fat.

Marine mammal mothers then pass these toxins on to their suckling offspring through their milk, which has high concentrations of fat. This is a serious problem found in the beluga whale populations of the St. Lawrence, and is also found in other whale populations throughout the world.

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator


Reference:
Untangling Food Webs and Bioaccumulation. In Secrets at Sea. Retrieved from http://www.secretsatsea.org/story/2a.html in June, 2012.
Photo credits: European Commission Glossary. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/health/opinions/en/dental-amalgam/glossary/abc/bioaccumulation-bioaccumulate.htm 

Ship2Shore with St. Margaret's School in BC

On June 22, Maia and I connected with children (age group 3-4) from St. Margaret's School in Victoria, BC. The daughter of one of the ROPOS pilots, Ian Murdock, is a student there and Ian was also present in the video conference. For that age group we all tried to keep our language as simple as possible while providing insight about what we are doing on the Pacific Ocean: how ROPOS and Wally work deep in the ocean, how the deep ocean looks and feels, how there can be life in such different conditions than we have here on earth.

The ROPOS pilot Ian Murdock, Marine Educator Goksenin Sen, Communication Specialist Maia Hoeberechts

It was a fun session with those little ones, and we all enjoyed being connected Ship2Shore and sharing a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Sharks and Whales

Here is the comparison between sharks and whales:

Sharks	Whales
Fish	Mammal
Lay eggs	Give live birth
Do not sleep	Sleep
Attack their food and hunt	Do not attack
Do not raise their young	Stay with their young nearly six months
Not endangered species	Endangered species
Breed consistently in captivity	Do not breed as openly in captivity
Have one natural enemy; dolphins	Have one natural enemy; the Giant Squid
Have one of the smallest brains of any creature human size or larger	Have brains just barely bigger than sharks
Will eat other sharks	Do not eat each other
Do not spawn or migrate seasonally	Travel in groups with seasonal patterns
Do not surface to breathe	Must surface regularly
Can grow as large as an average the Blue Whale	10 times larger generally than the average Great White Shark
Do not technically hear for they have no ears, but do use a kind of sonar location	Have both sonar and auditory capabilities, but do not have ears
Have jumped aboard tuna schooners to attack both fish and fisherman	Whales do not usually jump out of the water unless at Seaworld and being fed a fish
Are most closely related to ancient Great White Sharks and have not changed at all in almost two million years	Are most closely related to Whales and their land roaming cousin the Elephant
Have an endless supply of teeth that grow back in days no matter how many are lost	Were hunted for their bones and teeth and some have tusks like Elephants
Mayan civilization had records and history that they knew what Sharks were	The Mayan do not have any history or make knowledge of Whales
The Egyptians had recorded knowledge of the existence of Sharks	The Egyptians do not have recorded knowledge of the existence of Whales.
The Vikings had recorded knowledge of the existence of Sharks	The Vikings had recorded knowledge of the existence of Whales
Have made more money at the box office in raw sales (Jaws)	Have made more money in the video, DVD, and rental sales of their movies (Free Willy)

Reference:

Similarities and Differences Between Sharks vs Whales. In HubPages. Retrieved from http://blake4d.hubpages.com/hub/Smiliarlitis-and-Differences-in-Sharks-VS-Whales

Food web in the ocean

Food webs describe the relationship between organisms in a habitat in terms of who is eating whom. Trophic levels within a food web are based on what an organism eats. For example, phytoplankton are primary producers, mussels and clams are basal consumers (lowest consumers in the food web), crabs are secondary consumers, sea otters are primary predators and great white sharks are top predators. In addition to providing food for higher consumers, species also perform other jobs, or functions, in their habitat.

Food web in the ocean

Organisms that have the same function in a habitat make up functional groups. Functional groups perform jobs such as water filtration, wave buffering, and nutrient recycling. These ecological functions are important for maintaining balance within a habitat and for providing humans with valuable services such as clean water, storm protection and climate regulation. Each ecosystem in the ocean and along the coast has its own set of species that make up different trophic levels and functional groups that co-exist in an healthy, functioning ecosystem. Species composition changes can affect this balance, and alter system functioning.

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator


Reference:
Altered Food Webs. In Center for Ocean Solutions. Retrieved from http://centerforoceansolutions.org in June, 2012.

Dolphin show!!

I was fortunate to visit the largest aquariums in the world, one in Osaka and one in Atlanta. They both call themselves "the largest" depending on different sorting criteria. Both were fascinating! The aquariums provide a great opportunity for children and adults to meet the ocean animals and engage with marine life. While serving this purpose, aquariums are very valuable and educative.

However, the other side of the coin is somewhat dark to me. All those animals are taken out from their natural environments. Especially, the background of dolphin training is not that compatible with the life that the dolphins typically have in their natural environments.

Dolphins always have had a special place in my heart and I think they are one of the blessings on this planet. So maybe you can imagine how happy I was, one day when a group of dolphins showed up and made a wonderful show for us for about an hour! It was not just me of course, all the crew were so happy to see them.  We all enjoyed their wonderful show. Some of them were leaping above the water surface so high and then splashing water all round while falling. Some performed tail splashes for about five minute long sessions.

These are some of the ways of communication for dolphins, each means different things in their social group. Sometimes dolphins perform acrobatics in order to get away from the parasites or looking for schools of fish, or sometimes just for fun! We really enjoyed their show!

White-sided dolphins leaping around

Here is some brief info about dolphins from the Encyclopedia of Life:

Dolphins are marine mammals closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from 1.2m (4ft) and 40kg (90) (Maui's dolphin), up to 9.5m and 10 tonnes (9.8 long tons; 11 short toms) (the orca or killerwhale). They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, eating mostly fish and squid. The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacean order, and evolved relatively recently, about ten million years ago, during the Miocene. Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals, and their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them popular in human culture.

Dolphins also display culture, something long believed to be unique to humans (and also possibly other primate species). In May 2005, a discovery in Australia found Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins teaching their young to use tools. They cover their snouts with sponges to protect them while foraging. This knowledge is mostly transferred by mothers to daughters, unlike simian primates, where knowledge is is generally passed on to both sexes. Using sponges as mouth protection is a learned behaviour. Another learned behaviour was discovered among river dolphins in Brazil, where some male dolphins use weeds and sticks as part of a sexual display ("Dolphins." Encyclopedia of Life, 2012).

White-sided Dolphin

Bottlenose Dolphin

Spotted Dolphin

Dusky Dolphin

Killer whales, also known as Orcas

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Reference:

Dolphin. In Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved from http://eol.org/pages/7659/details in June, 2012.
Photos retrieved from http://eol.org/pages/7659/details in June, 2012.

Ship2Shore with Grade 3 students in New York State

Last week Maia and I had a virtual presentation with educators in three different cities in New York State. On June 20, at 6am we connected to the Watkins Glen Elementary School in New York State. There were 40 students from two Grade 3 classes. The distance learning lesson started on deck by showing the Pacific ocean from deck. The kids met ROPOS; they viewed his hands and eyes from close-up. Then, we moved into the ROPOS control room, and the children saw how ROPOS is controlled with a joy stick by a team of four pilots: three for controlling the hands and ROPOS itself, plus one for navigating.

Then we talked about pressure: how pressure works differently in solids versus liquids. When we apply force to a solid object, the pressure is local. For example, I had the children press their fingers to their hands so they could feel that the pressure is applied in one place. However, when that object is in water, the water applies pressure all around the object. For example, if we send a styrofoam cup to the deep ocean, the pressure will be applied all around it and the cup will be compressed from all directions equally. To demonstrate this, I showed students a regular styrofoam cup and also one that had been compressed to half its height by the pressure of the deep ocean.

A regular size and a compressed styrofoam cup 

Deep sea researchers like to write and paint on these cups for their family and friends. I showed the Grade 3 students an example of a compressed cup painted as a neat graduation gift. I was planning to paint cups for the two classes as mementos of our Pacific to Atlantic coast virtual class. I asked them what they want me to paint on the cups… killer whales it is:) So, I painted one cup for each class.

It was so much fun to paint cups for those wonderful children

Each cup had the school name (Watkins Glen), the names of the students, a killer whale, and "Pacific Ocean @ 2660m". These cups were sent into the deep ocean--they're being compressed as I am writing this--and they will be mailed to the teachers, Mrs. Brittany Wickham and Mrs. Cheryl Hazlitt. During our session, the kids also met with our freshly retrieved tubeworms, which live around hydrothermal vents in high pressure, high temperature and dark.

It was so fascinating to connect with the kids from Watkins Glen Elementary School. They were so enthusiastic! They asked very smart questions such as, what eats the tubeworms and what happens if we send a human being to the depths where ROPOS can go.

It really was a cheerful and enjoyable session. It was great to connect with children on the other side of the continent. We received a warm and happy email from the K-12 Program Manager for NYSERNet (New York State Education and Research Network), saying "we will make NEPTUNE Canada a household name in New York." As our next collaboration with NYSERNet, we will do a remote presentation at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference on June 26, 2012, introducing NEPTUNE Canada and the Ship2Shore Marine Educator Program.

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Waiting for yellow dots:)

How much giddy anticipation can there be for a couple of yellow dots on the ocean?













We were waiting on the bow of the R/V Thompson for yellow floats which were expected to pop up somewhere near us on the surface. The expected yellow dots are the syntactic foam floats attached to the RAS water sample platform which has been waiting on the ocean floor since September 2010. At last, the yellow dots popped up at some distance, but directly in front of us.

Finally yellow dots appeared just in front of us

Attached to the floats was a special package called the RAS platform. RAS stands for Remote Access Sampler. The RAS platform holding the water samples was retrieved and taken up on deck.

RAS is taken up on deck

Probably, our friend and scientist, Kevin was the happiest among us. NOAA's (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-USA) research scientist, Kevin Roe researches the chemistry of seawater, and was looking forward to the new delivery of water samples.

Water samples from the hydrothermal vent area

You may wonder why Kevin is out on an ocean full of water waiting for a 'special' water sample. Have you ever heard of old water? Old water refers to the water which has not been on the surface in more than 1000 years. Because of the circulation of ocean water from seafloor of the North Atlantic to the North Pacific, the water has a long journey and this prevents it to upwell to the surface. The water samples collected from the hydrothermal vent field is actually pretty historic! Even the Vikings could have been interacting with this water!

A colony of tubeworms along for the ride to the surface was an added bonus. It was like christmas in June for researcher Lara Puetz, since her area of expertise is tubeworms and these unexpected guests provided with her further samples for her research. I helped her with the dissection of skinny tubeworms. For the DNA analysis the vestimentum and obturaculum were dissected and preserved in tube filled with ethanol. Actually, for such tiny animals, you wouldn't expect to see so much blood in them.

Tubeworms live in high pressure around the hydrothermal vents

Tubeworm dissection

Spending time on the deck with sunny blue skies, shimmering ocean, fresh air and a fresh batch of samples, made for some happy researchers and one of the best days we have had on the cruise so far. I was very excited to have so many new and amazing experiences! I also received an email saying that one of my papers will be published!

A truly sunny, happy, busy day on the ocean for the science team of Wiring the Abyss 2012:)

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Update about the red beauty!

In a previous blog I mentioned a beautiful red jelly fish, which we could not recognize. Then, I brought up the topic of taxonomy in order to explain the scientific process to name a new species.

Deep sea jelly fish; Atolla sp.

An update! This beauty's scientific name is Atolla sp. with a common name deep sea jelly fish. Below is short info about it from the Encyclopedia of Life.

Disk flat, dome transparent, lenticular (lens-shaped); Internal structures and exumbella (bottom side) dark red; 20-30 tentacles alternating with marginal rhopalia (sense organ); Umbella margins divided into lappets (a pair between each tentacle); Circular coronal furrow in exumbella deep; in life, one tentacles always trails elongated ("Atolla." Encyclopedia of Life, 2012).

≈ Knowing feels good:)

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator


Reference:

Atolla (2012). In Encyclopedia of Life.  Retrieved from: http://eol.org/pages/23696/details

Lava in the ocean!

Is anybody living there?!

Basalt structure created by lava, which looks like a little underwater village

This is a morphological structure that occurred as a result of volcanic activities at the bottom of the ocean. When magma reaches the ocean floor, it suddenly cools down because of the temperature difference between the hot lava and cold ocean water. At first the outer surface of lava cools down quickly and forms a glassy skin. The inside of the lava cools down more slowly while having less finer, coarser structure inside.

As a physics note: In order to understand the lava structures, it is important to understand the notion of viscosity. In a more common sense, viscosity is the thickness of a fluid; the inner resistance to flow. For instance, water, olive oil and honey are all fluids, but they have different flow speeds related to their different viscosities. When a glass of water spills on the table, you can observe that the water is moving and spreading fast. When a glass of honey spills on the table, the speed of honey would be less than the water, since honey is more viscous than water.

Honey is more viscous than water.

Fluids with higher viscosity move slower.

Lava is also a fluid. Depending on the temperature and chemical bonds of the lava fluid, the viscosity of lava may change. When lava meets the cold ocean water it cools down. Different viscosities of lava creates different shapes and different basalt structures in water. Three most common basalt structures in Endeavour are:

Sheet Flows: Low viscosity lava with a high speed can spread out and form sheet-like flat lava structures.

Lobate: Middle viscosity lava forms lobate flows.

Pillow: High viscosity lava cools down quickly and forms pillow-like structures.

Pillow basalt structure created by lava, which looks like a human made statue!

Nature seems to be a very talented architecture:)

≈≈≈ Cheers from the place where lava meets water!

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator



Photo Credits: CSSF-ROPOS/NEPTUNE Canada

Fun facts about seahorses!

It is not in the NEPTUNE Canada's scope, but still it is about marine life... I just wanted to introduce this interesting marine inhabitant to you:) Here are ten fun facts about seahorses!

1. Hiding in plain sight! Seahorses can change colors like a chameleon to blend in to their environment.
2. Seahorses range in size from as small as a pine nut to as large as a banana!
3. The males become pregnant to carry babies in a kangaroo-like pouch!
4. Seahorses are monogamous and can mate for life!
5. There are 48 different species of seahorses
6. Seahorses are hitch-hikers! They can travel long distances across the ocean by attaching thmeselves to floating seaweed or debris.
7. Seahorses make noise! Similar to the sound of smacking your lips, seahorses make sounds that can be heard underwater.
8. Seahorses are not just tropical creatures. They can be found in colder waters like those found off New Zealand, Argentina, eastern Canada and even in the UK!
9. Seahorses are the only fish species that can hold your hand! Their monkey-like tail is used to hold on to objects in their environment.
10. Seahorses couples greet each other every morning with a unique dance that involves changing color!

A pregnant seahorse

Wouldn't it be neat if a seahorse held your finger?

What color would it change to?

≈ I really love seahorses! :)

Goksenin Sen

Marine Educator

Thanks to Lindsay Aylesworth, marine biologist, for sharing these fun facts with us:)

Photos retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seahorse in June, 2012.

Taxonomy of a USO

In one of our hydrothermal vent dives, we have seen an USO! With my expression "Unidentified Swimming Object" :)
























So, what happens when a scientist comes across an unknown specimen?

First of all, let's start with a fascinating fact:

More than 95% of the underwater world has not been explored yet!

Can you believe that?! 71% of the earth's surface is ocean and more than 95% of the volume of the oceans remains unexplored!! ...which feels like we are living on a pretty unknown planet and there is so much to explore!

For a scientist on land, maybe it is unlikely to discover a new type of bird, but given the unexplored percentage of the oceans, there must be so many new species waiting to be discovered in the oceans!

That is what happened when we were having a ROPOS dive. A beautiful red jellyfish, here it is better to not to assign a name to it, since we don't really know what kind of species it is.

Taxonomy is the science of naming organisms.

When marine scientists see an unfamiliar organism, they need to compare it with the descriptions of the known ones in taxonomy. For instance, in this case NEPTUNE and VENUS teams will check whether this beauty has been already described in taxonomy. If the teams cannot find an exact match, a specialist will be contacted to identify the species, if it is known, or even to create a new species name. Naming new species is actually a tedious process:

1. The scientist must provide a description in detail.

2. The scientist must provide two physical samples for the new specimen. The first physical sample is called the holotype and the second physical sample is called the paratype.

Holotype: The physical sample of the specimen used for the original description of the specimen
Paratype: The physical sample of the specimen to use as a back up of holotype.

3. The scientist writes an academic paper on the morphological description of the new specimen.

4. The Barcode of Life works for identifying species, not with a morphological description, but with genetic barcoding. In the taxonomy process, this is optional for now, but it is becoming more standard.

More on Barcode of Life.

As an important marine science note: Census of Marine Life catalogues and provides the biggest framework about diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life, while investigating the past, assessing the present and forecasting the future. It is worth to visit Census of Marine Life!

I could name it jellyfish the sunflower :)

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator

Life forms around the hydrothermal vent

Life around the hydrothermal vent

Based on the composition of the fluids coming from the vents, we can see diverse inhabiting organisms and animals around the hydrothermal vent. Actually, with a general perspective on habitat, marine scientists are amazed to see life forms here, since the environment is actually not hospitable for life. First of all, hydrothermal vent fields have very high temperature. It is around 350-400 degree celcius. Secondly, it is a high pressure area because of the depth, which is more than 2000 meters. Another barrier to overcome for biological life is that this flux is highly toxic and acidic, since it includes hydrogensulfide and many other polymetalsulfides. Given the environmental characteristics, you never expect to see any life forms down there!

However, there is a habitat for a diverse living organism and animals around hydrothermal vents, such as, different types of worms, fish, crabs, sponges, snails, sea stars, sea urchin, sea cucumbers, anemones, jelly fish, corals, octopus, squid, sea spider. A few photos from the recent dive:

A sea urchin is watching ROPOS taking samples

Sea urchin from below two brittle stars in the background

A deep sea spider crab is watching ROPOS taking samples

Deep sea spider crab close up

Anemone, feather stars and corals

Sea stars

Brittle star on a sponge

Arthropod

Chordate

Dinner plate jelly

Q1: Can a sea urchin watch ROPOS taking samples?

A1: How can it see something?! It does not have any eyes!


Q2: Can a deep sea crab watch ROPOS taking samples?

A2: Now, are you going to say yes, since it has eyes? Then you are tricked! Hydrothermal vents are deep down more than 2000 meters, in other words more than 2 kilometers below the ocean surface. Sunlight cannot reach that deep, so it is pitch dark there. Those animals and organisms live in high pressure, high temperature and pitch dark place all their lives! Most of them don't have eyes and even if they have eyes, they are not functional. But, they are extremely sensitive to vibrations! They have a strong sense of smell and taste, too.

So, in the first three pictures, although the sea urchin and deep sea crab are not able to see, they may have felt that there is something out there, a new friend from the world of light, ROPOS!

The first time I saw deep sea crabs was in Osaka Japan. I was amazed with their big giant legs! Deep sea crabs have eight legs with two feeding arms, the longest arm can be up to a couple meters. One of the monsters of the deep sea!

Goksenin Sen
Marine Educator


Photo Credits: CSSF-ROPOS/NEPTUNE Canada