Researchers in Vanuatu used remote underwater cameras to capture astounding footage of a medley of deep-sea creatures – including nautiluses, a sixgill stingray a gulper shark and a duck-billed eel – hundreds of metres below the surface.
The explorers spent a month in Vanuatu trying to discover which enthralling organisms live in the waters around the island nation.
“We explored waters from the shallows down to 1,250 metres deep using a range of methods including scuba surveys, remote camera systems, and our submersible, the Argonauta,” says Chris Thompson, a marine ecologist at National Geographic Pristine Seas who lead the expedition’s science team.
They spent time in the remote Torba province where they put deep-sea cameras into the water to document the region’s fascinating marine life. “Below soaring seabirds and stunning shallow coral reefs, our deep-sea cameras recorded an array of weird and wonderful creatures,” says Thompson.
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The cameras caught a huge range of critters including a curious two-spot red snapper (Lutjanus bohar), a prickly shark (Echinorhinus cookei), and the odd-looking sixgill stingray (Hexatrygon bickelli), which looks more like an alien spaceship than a typical ray.
“Near the island of Tongoa, we explored in the sunken crater of the active submarine volcano of Kuwae, surveying unusually warm waters with bubbling sulphurous vents,” he says. “Here, our cameras captured the prehistoric-looking Vanuatu nautilus, huge oilfish and bluntnose sixgill sharks and the elusive loveheart squid.”
Even in the dark waters of around 1,000m – where it’s so far from the surface that almost no sunlight can reach – they found a bustling community of ocean life, including a meddlesome King crab (Lithodes sp.) that toyed with their equipment and hungry deep-sea shrimps (Heterocarpus sp.) swarming on the gear.
Other species documented during the expedition included gulper sharks (Centrophorus sp.), duck-billed eels (Nettastoma sp.), and grey cutthroat eels (Synaphobranchus affinis).
“Our findings highlight how abundant and fascinating life can be in the deep sea,” says Thompson, “and how important it is to consider not only shallow water communities but also those offshore and down deep when making conservation and management decisions.”
Image and video credit: National Geographic Pristine Seas
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