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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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海底峡谷
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加利福尼亚的蒙特雷湾是海狮、海獭等海洋生物繁衍生息的家园， 它也是著名的蒙特雷湾水族馆的所在地。
在这里, 你能体会到神奇的海洋之旅, 从岩石堆积的海岸和潮水澎湃的湾地, 到海岸线上繁茂的森林, 它们重现了许多自然景观。 在蒙特雷湾水族馆呆上一会儿, 你会觉得你是在海底遨游, 而根本连脚都不会沾湿。 但这里却有一处很特别的景观, 也可能是最有趣的, 现在看来很难将它搬上岸。
蒙特雷湾水族馆海洋研究所的科学家们每周要进行两次海底之旅。 这里的位置是最理想的, 因为海岸边的水下就是大片的峡谷。 蒙特雷海底峡谷和科罗拉多大峡谷一样, 十分壮观, 它深达4000米。
海洋机器人是研究所的宝贵财产, 它不需要任何船员, 完全是个遥控装置。 机器人身上的摄像机, 是深海生态学家布鲁斯·罗伯逊唯一可以用来近距离观察目标的工具。
任何一个研究森林或沙漠的生态学家都会在亲自观察后, 再描述他所研究的生物群落。 而这一装置, 使我们第一次有机会和他们一样地观察。
遥控机器人开始了黑暗中的探索, 而控制小组的成员们正准备打破一项纪录。 今天机器人将进行有史以来最深的一次潜行, 1000米以下。 全力向前, 全力向下, 超过了1800英尺。
当有东西向下游去的时候, 你要留意一下屏幕。 布鲁斯·罗伯逊正在研究深海水环境, 探寻海平面和峡谷底之间的中空地带。 生活在那里的很多生物都十分奇怪。
这种小生物是一种蜗牛叫Heteropoda, 也可能Helipod更合适些。 它不停地上上下下, 旋转着的像叶片一样的是它的足。
再看看这种蠕动的生物, 它是一种透明的虫子, 它以为自己是条鱼。
这像纸一样薄的东西是条鱼。
但怎样把这些绝无仅有的图像传送回水族馆呢? 这些图像通过光纤传到船上, 再由天线传送到转播站, 然后送到水族馆。 实际上, 从摄像机摄像到在水族馆里看到图像, 其间只有3秒钟的延时。 同时, 工作人员朱迪思·康纳触摸一下屏幕, 就可以通过一个互动影碟系统, 回放以前的影像资料, 展示深海中“演员们”的风采。
在更深一些的地方住着一些更古怪的动物。 这个胶状掩体只是水母的一部分, 它们是一串吸盘等待着迷惑猎物。 这些“死亡之墙”能伸展很长。
海洋机器人的声纳已经扫描到40米以外的区域了, 最终我们下潜到1000米以下的地方。 一条深海鱼如约而至, 来到了这个机器入侵者面前, 冒失地闯进了镜头, 与科学进行了第一次亲密接触。
看它如何运用胸鳍, 让自己慢下来, 好像是在休息。 研究所和水族馆的科学家们渐渐对深海生命有了认识。
我们要全面地探索蒙特里海底峡谷, 从最浅的区域到4000米下的海底, 这需要好几年, 但我们还要探索整个太平洋。
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