Great Days for Invertebrates

Sorry for the delay in updating you-  we had some higher seas last night and that means no direct TV nor internet-  calmer this morning so here’s what we’ve been up to...

We were back in action starting Monday morning with dropping nets and collecting some amazing deep sea organisms!  Monday night we squid folks felt like we hit the jackpot with one of the shallow night trawls.  We had some rare species to add to our diversity count.

Histioteuthis meleagroteuthis  Photo: H. Judkins

Hyaloteuthis pelagica  Photo:  H. Judkins

Staying with invertebrates, the tows yesterday brought in some we haven’t seen yet-  Three deep sea spiders, 2 deep sea cucumbers, and a Blind Lobster to name a few.  All found near the ocean floor which meant our net got pretty close to the bottom- we were down at 1900 m for that tow. 

Pycnogonid (Sea Spider)  Photo:  H. Judkins

Blind Lobster  Photo:  H. Judkins

Dr. Tammy Frank is our resident crustacean expert on board and she’s been working with her graduate student on crustacean biodiversity as well as preserving animals for a couple of projects to be completed in the lab, one being a connectivity comparison study with the Gulf of Mexico.

Deep Sea Shrimp  Photo:  H Judkins

The connectivity project looks at fishes, cephalopods, and crustaceans from this area and will compare the DNA sequences to the same species found in the Gulf of Mexico.  This will tell us if species have broad ranges and intermingle throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the North Atlantic or if there are separate populations of sampled species.  If the DNA sequences of these animals are not close to the same it could mean that the Gulf of Mexico is a closed system for species gene pools. This is important to understand in case any sudden changes to the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem occur.