Thursday, 1 November 2012

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

 The dive site Thursday was a relatively shallow one for this mission (~250 m) but one that has been suspected to have species characteristic of greater depths. This may be explained by extremely cold water at this site — perhaps from upwelling of colder waters from deeper areas nearby — although no one knows for sure. Indeed, the ROV recorded deep-water species such as Lophelia corals and several Cutthroat Eels. The eels were spotted near some coral and were moving about in their characteristic sinuous swimming motion, staying near the corals that were gently waving in the current. The scientists decided to collect them as we had not yet collected any fish on this mission. The method chosen to collect these slender fish was to use the ROV’s suction hose (aka slurp gun).

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

Cutthroat Eel

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