Big-eyed crabs, furry sponges and lots of coral!

By Suzanne Wentley
Posted at 04:36 PM on June 05, 2006

John Reed, Harbor Branch's chief scientist on the research cruise, just emerged from three hours about 1,100 feet under the seas in the Johnson-Sea-Link submersible -- and boy, did he bring up cool stuff!

Along with videotaping pre-determined sections of the reefs and setting a few crab traps under a ledge, he was able to obtain samples of big-eyed crabs, sponges that resembled cotton balls and stark-white coral called Lophelia.

As the sub became visible in the water, a diver hopped on top to attach a thick rope that allowed the ship to pull it in. There were about a dozen sample containers. Some just had dirt from the bottom and water -- both extremely important for the researchers to understand the overall habitat. It's wild to think that just moments ago it was a fifth of a mile below the surface!

Unfortunately, the crab wasn't put in the temperature-isolated container -- so it was "cooked," said Harbor Branch's Tammy Frank. The corals were also dead because of the rising temperatures (it's about 9 degrees down there), but both samples were still usable, they said.

Reed said he saw lots of "wreckfish" and barrelfish cruising along the reef ledge. What else could be down there? That's exactly what the researchers want to find out!

SARAH GRILE sarah.grile@scripps.com
Dr. Tammy Frank, Head of Visual Ecology at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, from left, Mark Schrope, Harbor Branch's Science Writer , and Erika Raymond, who is a grad student at Johns Hopkins University and works for Ocean Research and Conservation, admire the Lophelia coral after it was brought up from 1100 feet below the water surface on Monday about 15 miles east of Fort Lauderdale. Scientists from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, students, and other research agencies are studying the unexplored deep coral reefs of the Miami Terrace.

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