In 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean and sank 3,800 metres to the bottom of the sea. More than 100 years later, marine scientists have just completed a detailed study of animals living at and near the wreck.
Ghost-white squat lobsters, skulking brittle stars, twisted bamboo corals and rattail fish – a deep-sea fish with pale scales and large eyes – were all recorded at the site.
Published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers, the findings add to our understanding of how artificial material, such as the Titanic, as well as natural material (the surrounding seafloor) influence the biodiversity of organisms living at the bottom of the ocean.
The researchers say the study, and others like it, are important for informing the management of the Titanic and other underwater heritage sites around the world.
3,800 metres into the deep
Despite sinking in 1912, it wasn’t until 1985 that the exact location of the Titanic on the seabed was made public. Since then, over 20 expeditions to the site have been made.
Using manned submersibles, remotely operated vehicles and autonomous underwater vehicles, researchers have invested much of their time and energy in mapping the wreck and analysing its condition as it slowly deteriorates.
Some voyages have focused on the biology of the Titanic, specifically bacteria and a single cold-water coral species found on the bow railings. Others have described fish species living in and around the ruined ship.
Between 1991 and 2001, a series of submersible expeditions took place to find out more about the Titanic’s benthic megafauna – these are the largest organisms occurring at the lowest level of the seafloor and are often big enough to be seen in a photograph or video. During these dives, researchers recorded invertebrates, sea anemones, sea sponges, barnacles, squat lobsters and starfish.
Since these expeditions, however, studies of the wreck’s benthic megafauna have been limited – until now. Based on videos captured during a 2022 submersible expedition known as the '2022 Titanic Expedition', the new study provides an update on the animals living at and near the Titanic wreck site.
The authors note that much of the video footage from the 2022 expedition focused on the bow section of the wreck. The stern section is located roughly 630 metres south of this, with an extensive debris field between the two large wreck sections.
A 2,900-metre-deep seamount ridge, approximately 40 kilometres southeast of the Titanic, was also assessed to see whether there were any differences in the species living at the two sites – one artificial, the other natural. Prior to 2022, the seamount ridge had never been explored.
Animals recorded at the Titanic
The team analysed megafaunal occurrence across 920 images (taken from videos) of the wreck site and 169 video images of the ridge site. Of these 1,089 images, 1,083 contained megafauna – leaving just six without.
They found brittle stars, basket stars and sea pens. White squat lobsters were also spotted. Despite their name and impressive front claws, squat lobsters aren't lobsters at all. These flattened crustaceans are more closely related to hermit crabs.
One of the more striking animals observed was a type of deep-sea fish known as a rattail. These large-eyed animals – noted in the study as being relatively common on muddy and sandy habitats – are found throughout the world’s oceans, relying on their finely tuned senses to locate meals in the darkness.
Bamboo corals were seen on the Titanic’s bow railings, the main anchor crane and around some of the cabin windows.
Meanwhile, images from the seamount ridge revealed sponges, marine invertebrates and fish. Several other eye-catching species were recorded here, including glass sponge specimens and multiple species of black coral, as well as large bamboo corals with densely packed branches measuring over a metre in length.
The team used their observations to compare megafauna of the artificial habitat (Titanic) and the natural reef habitat (seamount ridge), noting that there were differences. For example, an urchin known as Gracilechinus sp. was found in relatively high numbers at the ridge habitat but not at the wreck, while the white squat lobster was more common at the debris field and wreck than it was at the ridge.
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Changes over time
The researchers also wanted to find out whether there had been changes in animal communities at the Titanic wreck since it first started being studied. To do this, they analysed video images of the site captured between 1986 and 2022.
An overall increase in the number of cold-water coral colonies was observed. For example, the paper notes that, “Observations of video data from 1986 revealed several well-established colonies of Lepidisis sp. [bamboo coral] on the column and arm of the main anchor crane, with more recruits and growth of colonies in 2010 and even more in 2022.”
The team says that the most notable change in coral colony distributions occurred around some of the Titanic’s cabin windows. Here, 2022 video images show a substantial increase in the number of colonies in the area compared with the 1998 images. Some colonies appear to have more than doubled in size over the 24-year period – over 70 individual branches were counted within one image frame from 2022.
Videos taken during expeditions between the 1990s and 2020s show further animal activity, such as a deep-sea starfish on the bow, extending its arms into the water to feed. White sea anemones were seen in both 2010 and 2022 videos.
Why the study is important
The Titanic is one of the world’s most famous deep-sea wrecks. Because of this, it has been the subject of decades of observation and “may be studied as a proxy for understanding the physical degradation and succession of biofouling communities [the accumulation of microorganisms on underwater surfaces] of numerous other large wrecks at abyssal depths,” say the authors.
As fisheries, deep-sea mining, shipping activities and climate change continue to influence the world’s oceans, this study, and others like it, may be used to help inform the management of the Titanic and other deep-sea heritage sites, as well as natural habitats such as the nearby seamount ridge.
“The findings in our study should prompt further exploration of key ecological questions regarding the role of structures in the deep sea, larvae dispersal, ecological connectivity, and population resilience, particularly at abyssal depths and in the context of a rapidly changing ocean,” the authors conclude.
Find out more about the study Megafauna of the RMS Titanic shipwreck and a nearby seamount ridge in the deep sea of the western North Atlantic, authored by Jason Cleland, Anna Gebruk, J. Murray Roberts, Dmitry Aleynik, Beverly McClenaghan, Rod Mather, Bridget Buxton and Steve W. Ross.
Images within article: J. Cleland et al./Published by Elsevier Ltd/Creative Commons CC-BY | Top image: the Titanic wreck (this image is not from the study). Credit: Getty
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