These open water inhabitants face a formidable challenge: They have nowhere to hide. "But all that water in between is full of incredible animals. "When people think of the deep sea they often think of the seafloor," said Karen Osborn of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum.
"They imagined that there was nothing, because of the absence of light, the pressure, the cold, and the lack of food," Nadine le Bris, professor at Sorbonne University, told AFP.īetween 200 and 1,000 meters, the light fades until it vanishes completely, and with it plants at 2,000 meters the pressure is 200 times that of the atmosphere.įrom the abyssal plains to the cavernous trenches plunging deeper than Qomolangma is high, aquatic existence continues in spectacular diversity. Until the middle of the 19th century, scientists believed that life was impossible beyond a few hundred meters. This extremely hostile environment, which will come under the spotlight at a major United Nations oceans summit in Lisbon this week, has caused its inhabitants to develop a prodigious array of alien characteristics and idiosyncratic survival techniques.Ī vast assortment of animals populate the sunless depths, from the colossal squid, which wrapped its tentacles around the imaginations of sailors and storytellers, to beings with huge cloudy eyes, or whose bodies are as transparent as glass.Īnd the angler fish, with its devilish looks illuminated by a built-in head lamp, showing that the deep dark is alive with lights. Photo: AFPCloaked in darkness and mystery, the creatures of the deep oceans exist in a world of unlikely profusion, surviving on scant food and under pressure that would crush human lungs. A diver explores the coral reef at the Bunaken Island marine protected national park in Manado, Indonesia on as the capital city of northern Sulawesi hosts the World Ocean Conference.
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