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MLML Ichthyology students get up close and personal with deep-sea animals

Fig_1On October 21st, the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) Ichthyology class and local scientists set sail aboard the R/V Point Sur from Moss Landing Harbor to capture deep-sea fishes and invertebrates from Monterey Bay.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Class objectives included:

  1. Learn more about deep-sea organisms and oceanographic and ecological techniques
  2. Experience bottom and midwater trawling techniques
  3. Observe adaptations of deep-sea and planktonic organisms
  4. Learn to identify planktonic, nektonic, and benthic fishes and invertebrates

Students had the opportunity to deploy one beam trawl (bottom), one tucker trawl (midwater), and one otter trawl (bottom) at various depths (~600 m, ~1000 m, and ~100 m, respectively).

Fig_2

Since the early 1970s, faculty and students in Marine Ecology, Invertebrate Zoology, and Ichthyology courses at MLML have participated in class cruises aboard several research vessels to survey the fishes and invertebrates in shallow-benthic, deep-benthic and midwater habitats in Monterey Bay.

Data from these long-term class surveys were recorded on data sheets, and stored at the MLML Museum. With SIMoN funding, Dr. Cailliet (principal investigator) and his students entered survey data into a Microsoft Access database.

For more information on the long-term class surveys and to access the database, see “Archival of Midwater and Benthic Survey Data at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.”