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Submarine Canyon
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Monteray Bay in California is home of sea lions, sea otters and myriad animals and plants that thrive in the rich coastal waters. It's also home of the remarkable Monteray Bay Aquarium.
Displays plunge the visitor headlong on a briny guided tour. From rocky shores and tide pools all the way to the giant kelp forests that fringe the coast. They've re-created many of the environments from Monteray Bay so well here, that after just a while in the Aquarium you feel like you've dived through the whole bay without so much as getting your feet wet. But there's one particular environment and it's perhaps the most interesting of all that has, until now, proved too difficult to bring on shore.
Twice a week, marine scientists from the Monteray Bay Aquarium Research Institute set sail on a voyage to the bottom of the sea. And they couldn't be more perfectly placed because just off shore lies a vast submarine canyon. The Monteray Submarine Canyon is gigantic -- as large as the Grand Canyon, plunging to a depth of 4,000 meters.
The submarine robot is the Institute's prized possession. It carries no crew. It's an R.O.V.-- a remotely operated vehicle. The on-board cameras are the only way that deep-sea ecologist Bruce Robeson can get a close look at his subject.
No forest ecologist or desert ecologist would ever consider describing what goes on in those communities without ever having visited them. This equipment, for the first time, gives us the opportunity to have that same perspective.
The R.O.V. begins its descent into darkness. Here in mission control, they're preparing to break a record. Today the R.O.V. will make its deepest bay dive yet, below 1,000 meters, full ahead, full down, over 1,800 feet.
You might keep an eye on the screen when something swims down if you got to check them. Bruce Robeson is exploring the deep mid-water environment the void that lies between the sun-lit surface and the canyon floor. Down here, many of the inhabitants are very strange indeed.
This little creature is a type of snail called a Heteropoda. Perhaps Helipod would be more appropriate. It spends its time hovering about upside down. The rotating blade is its foot.
And how about this wriggle specimen, a kind of transparent worm that thinks it's a fish.
And this paper-thin apparition is a fish.
But how do these exclusive images get back to the Aquarium? The video images come up through the fiber optic cable and then they're transmitted from this antenna on the ship to a relay station and then to us at the Aquarium so really. There's a 3-second delay from the time the camera is taking these images to the time you're seeing in at the Aquarium. As well, an interactive video disc system allows Aquarium staffer, Judith Connor, to play back at the touch of a screen a mass of materials archived from previous dives, backgrounding members of the deep-sea cast.
Deeper again, there are some truly monstrous animals. This gelatinous curtain is part of a syphonophore -- a string of stinging zoids waiting for victims to stray their way. These walls of death can reach extraordinary lengths.
The R.O.V's sonar has scanned some over 40 meters long. Finally we drop into the depths below 1,000 meters and right on cue, a slick-head fish swims up to meet the mechanical invader blundering into the bright lights of television and it’s the first close encounter with science.
Look at the way he's using those pectorals slowing himself down like breaks. Gradually the scientists at the Research Institute and the Aquarium are getting a picture of life in the deep sea.
Well, we're going to explore the Monteray Submarine Canyon thoroughly and completely from the shallowest and all the way up to the edge of the ocean basin at 4,000 meters that'll take us a few years, but beyond that there's the whole great Pacific.
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海底峽谷
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加利福尼亞的蒙特雷灣是海獅、海獺等海洋生物繁衍生息的家園， 它也是著名的蒙特雷灣水族館的所在地。
在這裡, 你能體會到神奇的海洋之旅, 從岩石堆積的海岸和潮水澎湃的灣地, 到海岸線上繁茂的森林, 它們重現了許多自然景觀。 在蒙特雷灣水族館呆上一會兒, 你會覺得你是在海底遨遊, 而根本連腳都不會沾濕。 但這裡卻有一處很特別的景觀, 也可能是最有趣的, 現在看來很難將它搬上岸。
蒙特雷灣水族館海洋研究所的科學家們每週要進行兩次海底之旅。 這裡的位置是最理想的, 因為海岸邊的水下就是大片的峽谷。 蒙特雷海底峽谷和科羅拉多大峽谷一樣, 十分壯觀, 它深達4000米。
海洋機器人是研究所的寶貴財産, 它不需要任何船員, 完全是個遙控裝置。 機器人身上的攝像機, 是深海生態學家布魯斯 羅伯遜唯一可以用來近距離觀察目標的工具。
任何一個研究森林或沙漠的生態學家都會在親自觀察後, 再描述他所研究的生物群落。 而這一裝置, 使我們第一次有機會和他們一樣地觀察。
遙控機器人開始了黑暗中的探索, 而控制小組的成員們正準備打破一項紀錄。 今天機器人將進行有史以來最深的一次潛行, 1000米以下。 全力向前, 全力向下, 超過了1800英尺。
當有東西向下游去的時候, 你要留意一下屏幕。 布魯斯 羅伯遜正在研究深海水環境, 探尋海平面和峽谷底之間的中空地帶。 生活在那裏的很多生物都十分奇怪。
這種小生物是一種蝸牛叫Heteropoda, 也可能Helipod更合適些。 它不停地上上下下, 旋轉著的像葉片一樣的是它的足。
再看看這種蠕動的生物, 它是一種透明的蟲子, 它以為自己是條魚。
這像紙一樣薄的東西是條魚。
但怎樣把這些絕無僅有的圖像傳送回水族館呢? 這些圖像通過光纖傳到船上, 再由天線傳送到轉播站, 然後送到水族館。 實際上, 從攝像機攝像到在水族館裏看到圖像, 其間只有3秒鐘的延時。 同時, 工作人員朱迪思 康納觸摸一下屏幕, 就可以通過一個互動影碟系統, 回放以前的影像資料, 展示深海中“演員們”的風采。
在更深一些的地方住著一些更古怪的動物。 這個膠狀掩體只是水母的一部分, 它們是一串吸盤等待著迷惑獵物。 這些“死亡之墻”能伸展很長。
海洋機器人的聲納已經掃描到40米以外的區域了, 最終我們下潛到1000米以下的地方。 一條深海魚如約而至, 來到了這個機器入侵者面前, 冒失地闖進了鏡頭, 與科學進行了第一次親密接觸。
看它如何運用胸鰭, 讓自己慢下來, 好像是在休息。 研究所和水族館的科學家們漸漸對深海生命有了認識。
我們要全面地探索蒙特裏海底峽谷, 從最淺的區域到4000米下的海底, 這需要好幾年, 但我們還要探索整個太平洋。
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