Researchers sample unusually rich deep-sea area off Hawaii
Researchers sample unusually rich deep-sea area off Hawaii
Caleb Jones, Associated Press
Updated 7:47 pm, Thursday, September 29, 2016
HONOLULU (AP) — Federal researchers have just returned from an expedition to study the biodiversity and mechanisms of an unusually rich deep-sea ecosystem off the coast of Hawaii's Big Island.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday that the abundance of sea life sampled in a particular stretch of water off the Big Island points to a thriving deep-sea habitat, but they aren't exactly sure why. The area, about a mile off the south shore of Hawaii Island, was full of fish including sawtooth eels, dragonfish and many other mysterious deep-sea creatures.
Much of the ocean surrounding Hawaii is among the least productive water in the Pacific, said the expedition's lead researcher Jamison Gove, a NOAA oceanographer.
"Yet we know that Hawaii is this biological hotspot," he said. "So there's kind of this paradox: How can you have so much productivity around Hawaii yet the surrounding ocean waters are literally a barren ocean landscape?"
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