Researchers in the Caribbean made a surprising discovery when they dropped a camera over one kilometre deep during an expedition off Little Cayman.
"It’s time to close you in little guy,” the scientists can be heard saying in a 2024 Instagram video as they put the GoPro into its waterproof case ready to drop into the water. “Behave down there.”
The team deployed deep-sea baited remote underwater video systems (dBRUVS) as a way of studying the biodiversity in the deep sea. When the camera reached a depth of 1,054 metres, it recorded multiple roughskin dogfish (Centroscymnus owstonii).
The discovery was published in the Journal of Fish Biology. This is “the first sighting of this species in the central Caribbean Sea,” said lead author Olivia Dixon, a researcher at the non-profit Beneath The Waves.
The deep-sea is “one of Earth’s least explored regions,” she added, and understanding how species are spread across different locations is important if we are to protect animals and their habitats in a meaningful way.
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Image and video credits: Lead author Olivia F. L. Dixon and co-authors Shannon E. Aldridge, Johanna K. Kohler, Anne Veeder, Paul Chin, Teresa F. Fernandes, Timothy Austin, Rupert F. Ormond, Mauvis A. Gore, Diego F. B. Vaz, Austin J. Gallagher. The research was led by Beneath The Waves with collaboration from the Department of Environment from the Cayman Islands and support from Darwin Plus Initiative and GoPro.
