Flourescent sharks

From the Ten Foot Stop blog http://tenfootstop.blogspot.com/

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Hot news – deep sea fluorescent shark! (Link at end of message)

First a little history on fluorescence exploration in the deep
sea. In 2003 NightSea founder Dr. Charles Mazel had the
privilege of being the chief scientist on the first-ever project
that outfitted a manned submersible to explore for fluorescence
on the deep sea floor. The ONR-supported expedition used the
Johnson Sea-Link submersible operated by Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institution, making a total of 18 dives to depths
as great as 850 meters (2800 feet), at a variety of locations
through the Bahamas. Custom-made exciter filters and filter
holders converted the submersible's powerful 400W HID lights
into sources of blue light to excite fluorescence, while a
custom barrier filter was fitted over the submersible's camera
so that fluorescence could be recorded on video. The observer in
the submersible's viewing sphere wore a pair of the NightSea
yellow visor glasses. On these dives we discovered fluorescence
in a variety of deepwater corals and anemones, as well as in
sponges, crinoids, and other invertebrates.

In 2004 another set of fluorescence exploration dives was made
as part of Project DeepScope, supported by the NOAA Office of
Ocean Exploration. This wasn't an all-fluorescence expedition,
but some of the dives were dedicated to fluorescence using the
same basic equipment that had been used in 2003. Besides Charlie
Mazel, fluorescence participants included Dr. Michael Matz
(University of Florida), who had made the breakthrough discovery
on the nature of the fluorescing pigments in corals, Dr. Joerg
Wiedenmann (University of Ulm, Germany), and Dr. Eran Fuchs
(Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution). You can read all
about that expedition at
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...e/welcome.html,
and for fluorescence you should particularly check out the
August 10 and August 16 logs, and the page on detecting
fluorescence,
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...g/imaging.html.

Many more discoveries of deep sea fluorescence were made during
the 2004 trip, including a dive during which Charlie came upon a
fluorescent shark at a depth of about 600 meters (2000 feet),
but was unable to get good video because the shark lifted off
the bottom and swam away too quickly

That brings us up to date. The DeepScope 2005 expedition is just
wrapping up, having suffered interruptions from Hurricane
Katrina and from a broken winch needed to retrieve the
submersible. Mike Matz reports back that using the NightSea
filter set on the submersible he found another fluorescent
shark, and this one had the courtesy to settle on the bottom and
pose for pictures. You can read about this exciting discovery
and see the image at
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...g22/aug22.html.


--
Charles Mazel
NightSea
20 New England Business Center
Andover, MA 01810 USA
877 436-9262 (toll free)
978 685-6410
Fax 978 689-3232

mike gray <omgray@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

> From the Ten Foot Stop blog http://tenfootstop.blogspot.com/
>
> ************************************************** *****
>
> Hot news * deep sea fluorescent shark! (Link at end of message)
>
> http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...g22/aug22.html


Definitely a neat critter & interesting research. The video's
interesting too.


-hh