Matthew Jones tells us about his thesis on deep sea food webs in New Zealand waters, mainly fishes and critters from depths of 900 - 1200 metres, which is about four sky towers deep! His interest is in the role that scavenging plays in these ecosystems.
The viperfish (Chauliodus sloani) is a mid-water predator. However, this particular one came from the stomach of a deep-sea shark called a long-nosed velvet dogfish (Centroselachus crepidater). (Matthew Jones)
In the stomach of the viperfish was a lanternfish (Family: Myctophidae), and in turn, the stomach of the lantern fish contained small crustaceans called a calanoid copepods. (Matthew Jones)
This is a notable rattail (Coelorinchus innotabilis). There are many species of rattails found in New Zealand waters. Some species are abundant and live in close proximity to the sea bed and play an important role in the structuring of deep-sea communities on and near the sea bed.
Big-scaled brown slickheads (Alepocephalus australis) have no swimbladder and rely on having really watery flesh and less dense bones to aid their buoyancy. They feed mostly on gelatinous zooplankton just off the bottom (salps and pyrosomes). Studies have shown that these fish are probably optically-based predators, feeding on bioluminescent prey.
This is a spider prawn (Family: Nemtocarcindae), taken from the stomach of an orange roughy, in about 1200m of water. In a world of darkness why be orange? Well, the deep-sea is not totally dark, it's full of bioluminescence and most of that bioluminescent light is pale blue. The bottom image is the inverse of the top one and shows the colour absorbed by the orange prawn, so being orange in the deep-sea camouflages you from blue bioluminescent light.
This is a deep-sea prawn (Systellaspis pellucida). Deep-sea prawns like this one are often food for deep-sea fishes and play an important role in deep-sea ecosystems. This one came from over the Challenger Plateau in the Tasman Sea, from a depth of about 600m.
This is a photograph of a colony of thecate hydroids (related to corals), and they were found under under a bridge along Auckland's Tamaki drive.
