Unique images from the deep

[Orstio]

Click here to read the article ...

Copulating octopuses, feeding hermit crabs, squat lobsters and tiny crustaceans, sponges of all shapes and colours: Norwegian scientists are ecstatic about the fantastic images their high-definition camera has brought up from the deep during a four week long survey in the Barents Sea. Never before have they been able to watch life unfold on the seabed of the Arctic in such great details.

Hermit crab with a sea anemone on its shell.

Whereas sampling with different kinds of equipment is normally used to collect information on bottom fauna, a specially designed video rig has allowed the scientists to film 80 kilometres of seabed during their survey. . .

[Astronuc]

Well, there is a nice site about this project, but it is Norwegian.

http://www.mareano.no/

Click on Bildegalleri (picture (image) gallery) on the left.  The images are mostly of ocean floor profiles.

In English, First MAREANO survey completed


Institute of Marine Research - http://www.imr.no/english/activities/mareano

Here is a relavant site - http://www.mar-eco.no/

MAR-ECO is an international exploratory study of the animals inhabiting the northern mid-Atlantic. Scientists from 16 nations around the northern Atlantic Ocean are participating in research of the waters around the mid-Atlantic Ridge from Iceland to the Azores. 

http://www.mar-eco.no/mareco_news/2006/bottom_fish_exploration

Marine biology would be a cool field to be in right now!