There ’s so much in our oceans we have yet to explore — in part because life down there is so weird that we ca n’t even estimate out how to meditate it . Now scientist have made some progress with new engineering that let them peek inside one strange animal ’s float , goopy house . The team report their advancement in the journalScience Advances .
The giant larvacean ( genusBathochordaeus ) is a bizarre critter . Unlike advantageously - know filter feeders like baleen whales , Bathochordaeushas a little rima oris , so it ’s train to outsource the actual filtration process . Every day , the larvacean blows an tremendous , sticky mucus balloon , which snag all kinds of morsels as the fauna drifts through the water column .
Each trapped morsel contains a short bit of carbon paper . After the larvacean eat up its fill , it discards the now - littered snot bubble , which settle , thereby bearing some of that carbon out of circulation and onto the sea base . These delicate mucous secretion houses are quite beautiful , in their way . But they ’re also kind of a pain to meditate , as they be given to disintegrate at the slightest trace . Grabbing one in a net or jar has proven almost impossible .
oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Area Research Institute ( MBARI ) decided to take a more hands - off approach . They conform a technology called subatomic particle figure of speech velocimetry ( PIV ) , which is commonly used to study the movement and flow of water . They attached a PIV laser and a camera to a miniature remotely maneuver vehicle ( ROV ) and charge it down , down , down into the depth off the California coast . When the ROV ’s television camera spotted a larvacean , the investigator activate the optical maser , which diffuse a sheet of paper of Christ Within over the animal and its dwelling , illuminating every particle within .
“ We were all shocked by how well it work , ” master engine driver Kakani Katijasaidin a instruction . “ There was a lot of aah and aahing in the dominance room . It was n’t just the scientist who were shocked and astonied — it was everyone on the research watercraft . ”
The investigator are excited to apply their new technology to all variety of mystifying - ocean research .
“ Now that DeepPIV is usable to the oceanographic community , ” Katija said , “ it opens up all variety of possibilities . ”
