Wonders of ocean life counted in massive census

A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life. 

Salt and oxygen are concentrated in the deeper waters, he said. This dense water then flows out, carrying along the octopuses that have adapted to the new conditions, enabling them to spread to deep waters around the world.

Deep-water octopuses worldwide, he pointed out, lack the ink sack that allows their shallow-water cousins to shoot out a camouflage screen.

Researchers found a carpet of small crustaceans inhabiting the head of the Mississippi Canyon in the Gulf of Mexico. There are as many as 12,000 of these small crustaceans per square yard.

Among the other findings being reported at the meeting:

_The mid-Atlantic ridge half way between America and Europe is home to hundreds of species rare or unknown elsewhere.

_The ridge includes the world's deepest known active hot vent, more than 13,300 feet (4,100 meters) deep and populated by anemones, worms and shrimp.

_Reefs deep in the Black Sea are made of bacterial mats using methane as an energy source. The bacteria form chimneys up to 13 feet (4 meters) high.

_The deepest comb jellyfish ever found was discovered at a depth of 23,455 feet (7,217 meters) in the Ryukyu Trench near Japan. The discovery raises questions about the availability of food resources at such depths, which had not been thought capable of supporting predators like this one.

_The White Shark Cafe. Satellite tagging discovers that white sharks travel long distances each winter to concentrate in the Pacific for up to six months. While there, both males and females make frequent, repetitive dives to depths of 975 feet (300 meters), which researchers theorize may be significant in either feeding or reproduction.