New York Aquarium Volunteer Dive Team

Renewables' deep-sea mining conundrum...

The secret on the ocean floor...

The race is on to mine the deep sea along the Atlantic Ridge and in the Pacific Ocean but scientists are wary...

Conflicts are brewing about how the valuable natural resources in and around the Hudson Canyon can and should be used...

Methane bubbling up from the Atlantic seafloor...

The WCS has a part in history with the Twilight Zone. As you enter the NYA today, you may see an unimposing, deep-blue sphere. This is the original New York Zoological Society (today the WCS) bathysphere. Imagine being squashed inside this 4'9" hollow steel ball with a second person, air tanks, lights, fans, and assorted equipment, and then being suspended from a cable half a mile down in the ocean. In the late 1920s and 1930s, William Beebe, a naturalist with the New Yo...rk Zoological Society and Otis Barton, a Columbia University engineer, did just that! These two pioneers set early deep diving records and were the first to observe the denizens of the deep in situ by peering through three tiny portholes in the front of the bathysphere out into the abyss. Beebe and Barton introduced us to a new world which heralded an era of deep-sea exploration and oceanic research that continues to this day. On Aug 15th, 1934, the pair descended to 3,028 ft (the deepest any human had gone and survived at the time) just off NonSuch Island, Bermuda. This is nearly at the end of the Twilight Zone but even they had just scratched the surface of the deep ocean!

The twilight zone and deep ocean are still very much unexplored and unknown. Recently, scientists have discovered the existence of deep sea coral off the Atlantic Coast of the U.S...

Life in the Twilight Zone...

Who's preying on whom?

Life that can be found in the Twilight Zone proper include: Zooplankton copepods Cnidarians True jellyfish, siphonophores Comb jellies Mollusks giant and other squid (e.g. Vitronella), Nautilus... Fish Winteria, hatchetfish The animals of the Twilight Zone have adaptations to help them survive. Many are transparent or silvery so that they can hide from predators in the semi-darkness. For example, the deep sea squid Vitronella has an almost completely transparent body which makes it hard to see. Some can also generate their own light (bioluminescence). Twilight Zone animals also tend to have large eyes that use the tiny amount of light that still exists to hunt prey. They also have long, sharp teeth and gaping jaws to help them seize prey. These features make many deep sea creatures look nightmarish and ferocious. For example, Winteria have very large eyes to help them see prey while hatchetfish have long sharp teeth to catch prey. Animals may also have tentacles, stinging cells, and potent poisons to help catch and kill prey quickly. For example, true jellyfish, siphonophores, and comb jellies are transparent animals with stinging cells that capture fish, shrimps and other jellyfish. One of the largest siphonophores can reach 40 m (131 ft) in length making it one of the longest animals on Earth. Deep sea animals can survive the deep while most other animals cannot because of the difference between an animal’s internal and external pressure. Deep sea animals have similar internal and external pressures and have no internal air spaces. They also contain more water. Since liquids are almost incompressible, they can better-survive the pressures.

The Photic Zone and Humans. Surprisingly perhaps, humans don't do too badly although we are still no match for deep diving animals. The current freediving champion and deepest man on earth is Herbert Nitsch who set a world record in the "No Limits" discipline at the depth of 214 m (702 ft) - the end of the photic zone. The current women's "No Limits" record is held by Tanya Streeter at 160 m (525 ft).

The Photic Zone & deep-diving sea turtles...

The deep ocean starts at the end of the Photic Zone in the Twilight Zone at about 200 m (660 ft). One of the deepest diving mammals which can be seen in deep continental shelf waters off NY in the spring and early summer is the sperm whale. Sperm whales can dive to 1,000 m (3,280 ft) or the end of the Twilight Zone in search of food such as giant squid. Sperm whales breathe in air at surface pressure (1 atm). As they reach 1,000 m (3,280 ft), the pressure will have increased 100x and the whale’s lungs are crushed to contain just 1% of the volume of air it had at the surface even they cannot survive greater depths!