i VOL. XI NO. 1 SEPTEMBER 1964 EDITOR: JAN HAHN Published quarterly and distributed to the Associates, to Marine libraries and universities around the world, to other educational institutions, to major city public- libraries and to other organizations and publications. Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 59-34518 HENRY B. BIGELOW Founder Chairman NOEL B. McLEAN Chairman, Board of Trustees PAUL M. FYE President and Director COLUMBUS O'D. ISELIN H. B. Bigelow Oceanographer BOSTWICK H. KETCHUM Associate Director of Biology and Chemistry The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution • Woods Hole, Massachusetts VOL. XI, No. 1, Sept. 1964 ar? til hiaroumra thai think Ihrr r ta mi luuiX uihpu lliry ran are null]titij but ara. Francis Bacon* B AGON'S anti-oceanographic remark has little basis in fact. Apart from a certain similarity between the waves on our cover and the Azorean landscape, marine scientists, and for that matter seamen in general are fond of exploring the land the minute they set foot on it. Some study plants, some birds, some terrestrial geology, some anthropology, others study the land by tasting the local grapes. Even to-day it is a delight to read the exact descriptions of land and islands written by seafarers over the past 400 years. *(From: "Advancement of Learning", Second Book, Section VII, paragraph 5.) POGONOPHORA J_ HE naturalists and biologists of the 1 8th and 19th century had a grand time. On land and in the sea new animals and plants had to be described and placed in their proper order. This was not only great fun but naming organisms also provided an opportunity to honor royalty, patrons of the sciences, and colleagues. Scientists, being only too human, engaged in endless squab- bles to determine if it was right to erect a new phylum, class, or order. By the end of the 19th century the land animals were pretty well described and the cream was skimmed off the top of sea organisms, although new species and even genera still are found every year. For instance, since 1931 at least 30 new marine organisms have been named after members of our staff at Woods Hole, while in 1955 our Dr. H. Sanders discovered a new sub- class, the Cephalocarida. Now comes a new phylum! Pogonophora, the "sleeper" in Professor Zenkevitch's article on page 14. Here is an animal without a mouth, gut or anus! It is found worldwide in the sediment, mostly below 2,000 meters. It is enor- mously abundant in places. In the 1920's, Pogonophora were shovelled overboard by the ton from the R.R.S. 'Discovery II' when deep net hauls were found to be clogged with masses of "fibres". Some of the leading biologists of the day muttered: "Another batch of those disgusting "gubbins". Now Professor A. V. Ivanov has published a book,* translated from the Russian by D. B. Carlisle, describing this new invertebrate group of high systematic rank. A great zoological curiosity! Moral: An open mind is better than a closed mouth. *A. V. Ivanov, "Pogonophora", Academic Press, Ltd., London; Consultant Bureau, New York, 1963. When a female deep-sea fish, living in darkness, hears and recognizes the call of her mate can she find him? The sounds and hearing of shallow water fishes have been studied for many years. Fishes dwelling in deep waters or on the ocean bottom are not so easily studied and pose intriguing problems. deep ocean sonic fishes by N. B. MARSHALL M ANY bony fishes make definite sounds. They do this by pulsating the swim bladder or by moving certain hinged parts of the skeleton to produce frictional or stridulatory sounds. Sharks, rays, chimaeras, the cartilaginous fishes, do not have such sound-making devices, though they may produce noises when they swim and feed. Indeed, any sizable fish or any sizable school of small fishes can strike sounds into the sea during quick accelera- tions and turns. There are many sonic species in the waters of the Continental Shelf. Marine catfishes, species of the cod-fish family, sea-horses, squirrel-fishes, John Dories, boar-fishes, groupers, sea-perches, jacks, snappers, grunts, drum-fishes, angel- fishes, damsel-fishes, blennies, gobies, cusk-eels, sculpins, sea-robins, trigger- fishes, tile-fishes, porcupine-fishes, toad- fishes and singing midshipmen are among the sound-producing species of neritic waters. There must be more sonic species to be found. Many of the fishes listed above; for instance, the cod-fishes, drum-fishes, sea- robins and toad-fishes have drumming muscles attached to the swim bladder. Ex- periments show that the frequency of con- traction of these muscles corresponds to the fundamental frequency (75-100 cycles per second) of the sounds coming from the swim bladder. In species such as the grunts and certain jacks, the rasping of the pharyngeal teeth is picked up and enhanced by the swim bladder. Probably no part of the ocean bottom has been as thor- oughly photographed as the area where the 'Thresher' went down. The mozaic of bottom photo- graphs showed one fish for every 160 square meters. LAMONT GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATORY Means are not yet available for experi- ments on deep-sea fishes, though we can record their sounds and soon may even identify the sources. In the meantime, much may be done by studying their anatomy. The surest way is to answer this question: Do deep-sea fishes have drumming muscles on the swim bladder like those of shelf-dwelling fishes? Swim bladders But first, how many species have a swim bladder? At least half the bathy- pelagic species, notably many stomiatoid and lantern-fishes, have a well developed swim bladder. But in no species — and I have dissected over a hundred - - is there any sign of drumming muscles, or of a comparable mechanism. Again, at least half the bottom dwelling deep-sea fishes possess a well developed swim bladder. These species comprise most of the rat-tails or grenadiers (Macrouridae), the brotulid fishes, the halosaurs and notacanths, and the deep-sea cods (Mori- dae). In the swim bladder of any one of these fishes is a highly developed gas- secreting complex. These intriguing counter-current exchange devices main- tain the necessary gas tensions in the swim bladder of the deep-dwelling fishes, against the ambient pressure of the seawater, which, at a depth of say 2000 meters is 3000 pounds per square inch. In brief, there is good reason to suppose that the swim bladders of deep-sea fishes are well 4 Sonic fishes inflated, which is necessary if these organs are to be efficient producers of sound. Drumming muscles In nearly all rat-tails and brotulids there are massive drumming muscles on the swim bladder. These muscles, which are paired, are attached to the fore end of the sac. In some rat-tails, one attach- ment of each muscle is on the swim bladder wall; the other attachment is on the body wall. In other species both attachments of each drumming muscle are on the swim bladder, each muscle curving round the forward walls of the sac. Brotulid fishes have a more elabo- rate system, which is rather like that of their shelf-living relatives, the cusk-eels (Ophidiidae). The ribs of the first three vertebrae, or the ribs of the third ver- tebra alone, are fashioned to form "a springy attachment for the forward face of the swim bladder. The drumming muscles are fastened to this bony attach- ment and to the rear end of the skull. In sum, the drumming mechanisms of the rat-tails and brotulids are very like those found in other bony fishes. Except for one species, drumming muscles are found only in male rat-tails. This is also true of the egg-laying brotu- lids. But in one deep-sea brotulid (Dipja- canthopoma) and in an inshore form (Dinematichthys), both of which are live-bearers, drumming muscles are pres- ent in both sexes. Whether the same is true of other live-bearing brotulids remains to be seen.* When these drumming muscles are active, the swim bladder wall is vibrated, so sending sounds to the sea. As in shelf- fishes, the frequency of muscular con- traction may be expected to determine the fundamental frequency of the sounds produced. And swim bladder sounds, unlike those made by stridulation, have series of harmonics. There are a thousand-odd species of benthic, deep-sea fishes, of which about 95 per cent are slope dwellers (200-2000 meters). The populations of the remain- ing abyssal species' are centered at depths below 2000 meters. Since there are over 300 species of rat-tails and nearly 200 species of brotulids, about half the slope fauna must consist of sound-making species. Moreover, the rat-tails and brotulids, like other benthic *For much of this information on brotulids I am indebted to Walter R. Courtenay (Depart- ment of Zoology, Duke University), who is studying the drumming mechanisms of ophi- dioid fishes. 1 Certain rat-tails and brolulids are bathy- pelagic. Distribution of sonic fishes in the ocean. The noisiest waters are those over the shelf and those immediately above the slope. There are no structural indications that bathypelagic fishes produce sounds, though sound-producing benthic fishes, such as the rat-tails, may sometimes be caught in mid-water regions. 200 meters 2000 meters Shelf— Bathypelagic Slope Rise Abyssal regions Sonic fishes deep-sea fishes, are most diverse in sub- tropical and tropical regions. But though there are few species in temperate waters, there may be many individuals. Over the New England slope, for instance, live abundant populations of the rat-tails, Nezumia bairdii and Coryphaenoides rupestris. The males of both species have a drumming swim bladder. Biological meaning What is the biological meaning of sound-making in fishes?* In some shelf- dwelling fishes; such as the cod, the sea-horse, Hippocampus hudsonius, and the mapo, Bathygobius soporator, sound signals are part of courtship activities. Perhaps sounds play a part in the court- ship of certain drum-fishes, for in these species the males alone have a drumming swim bladder. Sounds may also accom- pany aggressive and defensive displays. Certain drum-fishes and squirrel-fishes, like birds, are very vocal at dusk and dawn. And in the deep ocean, at least, it is even possible that sonic pulses may be used for echo-sounding. To recapitulate, in most rat-tails and many brotulids the male fish alone de- velop sound-making devices. Now sound signals seem a good way of communicat- ing in the deep ocean where there is little or no sunlight at depths beyond 1,000 meters. The calls of the males might assemble the breeding stock and play a part in courtship and mating. Moreover, in rat-tails and brotulids, as in the drum-fishes, the lower, hearing part of the ear is not only large but holds a large ear-stone, which is suspended close to a large cushion of hair-bearing sense-cells. But the physiological signifi- cance of such auditory design has yet to be investigated. In the deep-sea cods there is a close connection between the ears and two forward extensions of the swim bladder. These fish must hear well, but are they sound producers? Investiga- tion of their anatomy should be under- taken. When a female rat-tail or brotulid hears and recognizes the calls of her *See also: "The Sounds of Fishes", by J. M. Moulton, Oceanus, Vol. V. Nos. 1 and 2. Drumming muscles (m) in a rat-tail (left) and a brotulid (right). In the former the muscles are attached to the lining of the body cavity (broken line) and to the swim bladder (sb). In the brotulid the muscles run from the rear part of the skull to the forward face of the swim bladder (sb), which is attached to modified ribs (r,r,r). mate, can she find him? If she is beyond a certain distance she will simply be receiving one kind of disturbance, pres- sure waves, transmitted from the pulsat- ing swim bladder of her possible mate. The amplitude of these waves falls off as i-, where d is the distance between the source and the receiver. But, the pulsat- ing swim bladder and flanks of the male will also cause water displacements in the radial direction, whose amplitude decreases as^2. At a certain distance from the sound source these displacement and pressure amplitudes will be equal, and for a pulsating gas bubble they are equal to about one wave length over 2 TT (van Bergeijk, 1964). Points within this boundary of amplitude equality constit- tute the near field, while points beyond it are in the far field. Present evidence, which comes from experiments in aquaria, suggests that fish are not able to locate a sound source, whether through the ears or lateral-line system, unless it is in the near field. This is intriguing, and we can only await further critical experiments in open water conditions to see if the near-field theory is really right. However this may be, I MR. MARSHALL, Senior Principal Scientific Officer at the British Museum (Natural History) has just spent one and a half years at our Institution. He is the author of "Aspects of Deep-Sea Biology". was interested to find that two abyssal rat-tails, at least, are without drumming muscles on the swim bladder. Perhaps the individuals of abyssal species live too far apart for sound signals to be an effec- tive means of communication. Photo- graphs of abyssal fishes (mostly rat-tails), taken by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the area of the Thresher1 disaster, show one fish for about every 160 square meters surveyed by the camera. (Marshall and Bourne, in press) Since the individuals of the more abun- dant, slope-dwelling species live closer together, perhaps there was scope, as it were, for the evolution of the short-range means of sonic communication. But, first and foremost, we need to know the effective radius within which one fish can home to the calls of another. There is now considerable interest in the behaviour of sonic fishes so this requirement may soon be realized. In the Gulf of Aden a macrourid swimming at a depth of 1360 meters. Just ahead and behind the fish are two mysterious "Red Sea marbles", shown on many photographs taken in the region. The only cupepod with a "moustache". This tiny crustacean (it's actual size is approximately •) was found to be a new genus and was discovered in deep water in the North Atlantic as well as in the Indian Ocean. Copepods are abundant in fresh and salt waters and form an important source of food for small fishes. T, O find a new animal both in the North Atlantic and in the Indian Ocean during one year is interesting enough. However, Dr. Grice and Mrs. Hulse- mann have prepared illustrations of twenty new species and at least four new genera of copepods from the North Atlantic samples. One genus based on a single specimen found off the Great Barrier Reef, Aus- tralia, in 1936 and not since reported was found in two of the North Atlantic hauls. Another copepod species of which one only was found off the coast of Washington in 1949 also was rediscov- ered in one of the deep samples, as well as several other species originally found off Japan and the Kurile-Kamchatka Trench. All in all, the samples collected by the National Institute of Oceanogra- phy and examined at Woods Hole appear to constitute one of the most important deep sea plankton collections ever made. A Moustached Copepod by K. HULSEMANN A.- .S part of our program of studies on systematics and distribution of copepods, we examined a series of deep plankton samples sent to us by Mr. Peter Foxton of the National Institute of Oceanography, England. The collections were made by the R.R.S. 'Discovery IT, in the eastern North Atlantic by means of a closing net to a maximum depth of 5000 meters. In the first sample analyzed, a small unusual- looking copepod was observed. The spe- cies was subsequently found at five of the six stations but only in depths below 2000 meters. Further study of the animal revealed that it represented not only an undescribed species but also a new genus. The most striking characteristic of this copepod is a conspicuous row of stiff bristles which arise from between the bases of the first antennae and resemble a "moustache". Among other remarkable features are the relatively large second maxillae which may function as an aid in capturing and retaining small prey. The species is relatively small; the adult female varies in length from about 1 .2 to 1 .3 mm. It was named Foxtonia barbatula for Mr. Foxton. The specific name barbatula refers to the moustache-like row of spines. Up to seven adult females were present in each sample and there were many juveniles in various stages of development. In terms of abundancy, the maximum number observed were five animals per 100 cubic meters of water. Although no adult males were found, all the females had been fertilized. The absence of adult males possibly indicates that they are eaten by the females soon after mating. Pending the discovery of adult males which are frequently of systematic impor- tance the genus Foxtonia can only be temporarily assigned to a family. It may at first seem surprising to find numerous copepods representing a new genus with a conspicuous appearance. However, 'the small size of the copepods, the fine mesh size of the plankton net used, and the great depth explored may help to explain why this copepod had not been found before. Earlier this year, Dr. Grice of this Institution collected plankton on the 'Anton Bruun1 in the Indian Ocean. The same type of plankton net was employed and the same depth intervals were fished as was done in the North Atlantic. So far we have examined the collections ob- tained from below 2000 meters at six stations between 2° S. and 18° N. along 65° E. Foxtonia barbatula was found at four of these stations! This is one interesting result of our research on material from the Indian Ocean. Much more is waiting to be discovered! MRS. HULSEMANN, Ph.D., assistant scientist on our staff, is a systematic zoologist. 2-2 3-3 4-4 I T is rather amusing that these three euphonious issues are the only three of which we can find no copies to fill in library sets. If any reader has one of these to spare, we shall be most grateful to receive them. (Volume 2, Number 2; Volume 3, Number 3; Volume 4, Number 4). We know of about twenty complete sets of OCEANUS, and will be interested to hear from other libraries or individuals who possess all issues back to Volume 1, Number 1 (Winter, 1952). Recently we reprinted a few copies of Volume 1, Numbers 1 and 2. About 75 of each are available to libraries and others but only to complete full sets, please! 10 Heezen receives June 17th, 1964, our Trustees awarded the Henry Bryant Bigelow Medal to Dr. B. C. Heezen of the Lament Geological Observatory, Colum- bia University. This medal, accompanied by a cash prize of $2500.00, was established by the Board of Trustees in 1960, 4>to be awarded to those making significant inquiries into the phenomena of the sea". Dr. H. B. Bigelow received the oceano- graphic medal, named in his honor, on March 16, 1961. The second award was made to Dr. J. C. Swallow of the British National Institute of Oceanography on August 15, 1962. This third award of the medal, bearing the likeness of Doctor Bigelow on one side and the Research Vessel 'Atlantis' on the other, honors Doctor Heezen for his contributions to the knowledge of the ocean floor and the geologic processes peculiar to the oceanic crust. Born many miles from the sea, on April 11, 1924 in Vinton, Iowa, Bruce Heezen was educated in that state, re- ceiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from Iowa State University in 1948. He re- ceived a Master of Arts degree in 1952 and his Ph.D., in 1957, at Columbia University. H. B. Bigelow Medal In the summer of 1947, while working at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti- tution, he first entered the field of marine geology. He is now Assistant Professor of Geology at Columbia University. Together with Marie Tharp of the Lament Geological Observatory he pro- duced the first physiographic charts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Well over one hundred scientific papers, articles and reviews, in several languages, bear Dr. Heezen's name as author and co-author. Correction A typographical error appeared in the second column of page 10 of the June 1964 issue. Dr. Iselin, of course, had written "15° North" and not "150° North". The editor deeply regrets this error and hopes he will not be sent that far north! Corrections, printed on gum- med paper, have been sent out and are still available to anyone requesting them. jan hahn 11 JOHN HATHAWAY US GEOLOGICAL SURVEY microscopic organism, part plant and part single celled animal — the coccolith — or rather it's calcareous skeleton — forms huge amounts of sediment in some parts of the deep ocean. Here one coccolith is shown, magnified 11,000 times, taken from a sample of ooze obtained from the Pacific Ocean by M. N. Bramlett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. tde ©CGCM N. ATURE constantly offers surprises. This deep-sea fish with a forebody shaped like an aerial bomb and a tail designed as if as a result of towing tank tests appears to have all the qualifications for high speed and maneuverability. We have, of course, no idea of the swimming speed of deep-sea fishes. Living in utter darkness there seems to be no need for such qualifications. 13 Pogonophora This strange animal is described on page 18. It lives mostly in the deep ocean sediment, inside a tube into which it can withdraw. Among the many strange characteristics of the Pogonophora is the fact that the animal is extremely thin in comparison to its length. 14 COBETKAfl OKEAHOJ10ri/m by L. Zenkevitch JLHE future progress of mankind, its scientific and economic development largely depend on the use that can be made of the world ocean, its vast re- sources of water and bottom deposits. Biological and geological exploration have played a major role in the large scale research conducted by Soviet oceanologists under the program of the International Geophysical Year and the International Solar Year. This exploration has revealed different aspects of the submarine relief, from the surf zone to deep ocean trenches. During the International Geophysical Year the Soviet expedition sailing on the 'Vityaz' discovered in the Pacific, to the north of New Zealand a deep water trench which was named after the ship. The trench is more than 500 kilometers long and from 4,000 to 6,410 meters deep. During the 34th cruise of the 'Vityaz' the expedition discovered, in the zone of the Hawaiian Islands, more than thirty hitherto unknown submarine mountains, one of them with a comparative altitude of 4,500 meters and 787 meter minimum depth above the crest. Three of the highest mountains in other parts of the Pacific, with comparative altitudes of 3,000 to 4,500 meters, were studied in detail and named after the Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and German Titov, and Soviet oceanologist Nikolai Zubov. Gagarin Mount is a double crested cone of volcanic origin lying east of Christmas Island. Titov Mount lies 40 miles southeast of Baker Island, on a low shelf uniting the Howland and Baker Islands and Winslow Reef. The flat top of the mountain, rising more than 4,200 meters above the ocean bottom, is shaped like a horseshoe, with the salient side turned west. It is composed of large boulders and outcrops of basic bedrock. The scientists first thought that the sur- face of the mountain was basaltic. According to a later theory Titov Mount is a former coral island on a massive volcanic foundation. Zubov Mount, in the zone of the 15 Russian Oceono/ogy Marshall Islands, is evidently one of the biggest mountains of the oceanic range on which the Ellice and Gilbert Islands lie. Beyond it stretches the level bed of the Pacific with depths of more than 5,700 meters. A minute study of samples of bedrock and bottom sediments showed that many of these mountains are of volcanic origin. The same can be said of the vast mountain ranges with a complicated relief discovered by the 'Vityaz' on her way from Indonesia to Australia. Deep prospecting has shown that man- ganese, iron, copper, nickel, and rare and radioactive elements are deposited at the bottom of seas and oceans in billions of tons. Ocean water contains about six and a half billion tons of sodium, 480,000 billion tons of potassium, more than 150,000 billion tons of magnesium, 80,000 billion tons of bromine, 260,000 million tons of uranium and 10 billion tons of gold (or 3.3 tons to every inhabi- tant of the globe). The submarine earth crust lying under the layer of bottom sediment is not deep: from five to six kilometers instead of the 30-40 -kilometers thick crust under the continents. The crust could be drilled under the ocean to reach the mantle of the earth — the matrix of all minerals. The upper mantle is at present one of the major problems of geology. Its solution would mean a future supply of minerals, greater than the supply of mainland deposits. But deposits below the ocean bottom are as yet inaccessible to man. Mining for iron and manganese in concretions* formed at great ocean depths affords better prospects. .These concretions are in the form of slices, lumps, or balls of two to ten and more centimeters, usually scattered on the ocean bottom, but some- times lying there in solid layers. JL HE article by Professor Zenkevitch came to us translated by the Novosti Press Agency which also supplied the photographs. We have taken the liberty to shorten the article somewhat and made minor corrections where the trans- lation seemed awkward; a dangerous task - - as we did not have the original Russian text - - for which the editor assumes full responsibility. Academician Zenkevitch is a senior biologist and author of a recent book: "Biology of the Seas of the U.S.S.R.", G.* Allen and Unwin Ltd., London, 1963. "Manganese nodules (ed). The 'Vityaz', expeditionary vessel of the Institute of Oceanology, Academy of Sciences of the U. S. S. R. >KM.mj6 /»^; J >*5*r"<^ v> '«/ -Vw, >->>** The Pacific bottom, somewhere between frie Hawaiian /s/ands and California, showing a vasf accumulation of iron and manganese nodules, a high-grade ore rich in cobalt and nickel. Some of these pieces of high quality ore are very regularly shaped excrescen- ces on other bedrock. Two years ago, 420 miles northwest of Freemantle, Australia, the trawl of the 'Vityaz' brought up, from a depth of 5,200 meters, regularly shaped black balls, 12 centimeters in diameter, weighing about one kilogram each. They were iron and manganese concretions. The chief of the expedition, Professor Panteleimon Bez- rukov, noted that he had never before, in the course of other expeditions, seen concretions of this rare absolutely spheri- cal form. Long known Though iron and manganese concre- tions have been known for a long time, scientists have not yet unravelled all their mysteries. The total quantity of sub- stances contained in them greatly exceeds the content of these substances in the ocean water. It follows that either these substances have other sourc'es besides water: from the earth's crust underlying the ocean bottom, volcanic activity, cracks in the earth's crust, etc., or that the process of their formation takes a very long time (and perhaps both). Masses of dead organisms and washed out land remains are carried for millions of years by ocean waves. Settling gradu- ally on the bottom this mass amalgamates with chemical substances from the water. In this process fragments of stone, sharks' teeth and other solid objects lying on the bottom could be covered with a crust, as a pearl envelops a grain of sand. This may have been the origin of manganese nodules.* Academician Nikolai Strakhov sup- poses that concretions exist on the sur- face of the bottom sediment only. The manganese and iron forming 60 per cent of concretions are oxidized. Under a layer of sediment they become protoxi- dized, dissolve and settle again on the surface. Bottom sediment photographs show that the concretions are not cov- ered with sediment, but look as if they had been carefully laid out in an even layer to be photographed. Concretions have also been discovered in samples of subsurface sediment. It may be supposed that the surface of the ocean bottom is swept bare by deep *See also: "Manganese Nodules", Oceanus, Vol. Vl.'No. 2, 1959. 17 Russian Oceano/ogy currents. Until recent years scientists were of the opinion that currents carry sediments to the coastal parts of the ocean only. The expeditions of the 'Vityaz' have established the fact that sediments are also carried to central ocean areas. This is bound to influence the agglomeration of minerals; the chemi- cal process of iron accumulation, for instance, is delayed by the excessive accumulation of sediments, which ex- plains the dearth of ore in such places. Following nature Microbiologists attribute the iron- manganese concretions covering the bottom of most seas and oceans to the work of bacteria. At present, we can hope only for the discovery of the nature of biochemical work performed by bac- teria, fish and algae, which would result in the construction of artificial means of operating on the same principles. I have no doubt that this will be done at some future time. Sea organisms can help us to obtain useful substances dissolved in sea water. Some plants and animals are capable of accumulating rare chemical elements contained in water. Brown and red algae, for instance, contain great quantities of iodine and bromine, where- as in sea water iodine is difficult to dis- cover even by chemical analysis. Some animals also assimilate iodine easily and concentrate it in their organism. Besides acting as intermediaries in our search for valuable substances, sea organisms and plants are in themselves no less valuable than gold or precious minerals. The supply of crustaceans, molluscs and algae at present obtained in the world is 40 million centners* per year. Even at the present very modest scale of whale hunting the annual catch is from 50,000 to 60,000 whales (average weight of a whale - - 50 tons). The actual re- serves of food in the world ocean exceed the present possible consumption millions of times. The reserves of algae in the seas of the Soviet Union are calculated at scores of million tons: an enormous supply of chemical raw material. Calcu- lations show that every 10,000 centners of dry algae can yield 1,500 centners of *One centner — 100 kilograms or 220.46 Ibs. mannite, 2,700 centners of food salt and industrial sodium and 1,900 centners of potassium salts. Eastern peoples use fresh, boiled, dried and ground algae in their food, besides extracting mannite, sodium, potassium salts, agar-agar, iodine and other valuable products. The coasts of many countries are lined with wide belts of algae. These waters could be used as feeding grounds for shellfish, fish and plankton. The supply of living organisms in these feeding grounds can be greatly increased by artificial fertilization of the sea water. To give a full list of all the substances that can be used as fertilizers would be difficult. All the basic products of ex- change have been found in sea water: protein combinations, many organic acids, some vitamins and vegetable hormones. Though most of them hardly have been studied, they are clearly of primary im- portance to the vitality of sea organisms. Several unknown organic substances, mainly of a yellowish color, have been discovered by the scientists of the Mur- mansk Biological Sea Institute. These substances (and not sand, as is often thought) are responsible for the yellow- ish color of coastal sea water. These substances, whose composition includes certain groups characteristic for well known organic acids, have some specific properties. The mystery of life's origin is perhaps bound up with these combina- tions. In any case, they play, possibly, an important role in the development of marine feeding grounds and a greater supply of useful living organisms. Pogonophora Most interesting results have been obtained by Artemi Ivanov, Professor of Leningrad University, who has taken part in many expeditions on the 'Vityaz'. He has discovered a new group of ani- mals, pogonophora, and reconstructed a whole link in the evolution of the animal world. These unusual organisms, encased in thick, skinny tubes, resemble small worms. They are typical and common representatives of great ocean depths and, to a lesser degree, of ks average depths. 18 The Fiji sea bottom in the Pacific at a depth of 2400 meters. Some bedrock can be seen outcropping from under the ripple marked sediment. The movement of bottom water here is rather intense. The Pacific bottom off the California coast, at a depth of 3015 meters. The silt surface shows many signs of bottom fauna. Of interest is the mysterious spiral track on the right. : 5&£pa '&g*-^B%$3a Russian Ocecmo/ogy Only in cold zones, such as the sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea, where some deep water inhabitants rise to the upper zones, pogonophora are sometimes found in shallow depths. Professor Ivanov has definitely proved that these organisms are an independent group of deuterostomata, close to the type of chordates. His system of pogono- phora includes two orders, five families and about twenty genera. He has made up a map of their geographic distribution in all the oceans. No mouth! The total absence of digestive organs, mouth and annal opening is a remark- able feature of pogonophora. They feed through special big cells forming part of their tentacles. These cells absorb nutri- tive substances from the environment by water filtration along the tentacles. Ivanov has studied the early stages of development in the tubes' inhabited by pogonophora and established their similarity to chorded animals. Professor Ivanov has been awarded a Lenin prize for his discovery, undoubtedly the most important event in zoology in the last half century. My own hypothesis, that every deep water depression is inhabited by its own species of animals, in some degree differ- ing from the inhabitants of neighboring big deep water depressions has been confirmed by research conducted from the -Vityaz'.. Many strange inhabitants of great ocean depths have been found by 'Vityaz' expeditions in the Pacific. Some of them are unique specimens of unknown spe- cies of fish. Those inhabiting the greatest depths have small eyes adapted to a dark environment. Some fish have a sucker protruding from their stomach, used by the fish to attach its body to the bottom. All the specimens have a peculiar body structure. In the neighbor- hood of Java, the trawl caught two deep water fishes of unusual size, one of them is capable of swallowing a prey several times bigger than its own body. While most of the inhabitants of the upper layers of water are of a silvery or ACADEMICIAN ZENKEVITCH is a corresponding member of the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences. He is Chairman of the National Oceanographic Commit- tee of the U.S.S.R., and Vice-President of the Special Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR). blueish color, the shellfish and jellyfish inhabiting depths of several hundred meters have a protective reddish coloring, because red rays alone penetrate into these water layers. At a depth of several thousand meters below the surface of the ocean most of the fish are black: hardly any light penetrates into those depths. Below 5,000-6,000 meters the fish have a colorless skin. Countercurrents Ocean counter-currents have long ago been discovered by scientists: masses of water moving parallel to well-known currents but in the opposite direction and sometimes at a different depth. The causes of this phenomenon are not estab- lished and everything connected with it remains highly mysterious. The giant counter-currents of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans are of great impor- tance to climate, navigation, fishing and other practical activities. The "Vityaz1 has studied several hitherto unknown sub-surface currents and estab- lished the length of Cromwell's equatorial undercurrent, previously discovered. It takes its source in the farthest western section of the central part of the Pacific and flows for thousands of kilometers east, probably reaching the coast of South America. Observations have shown that Cromwell's current is not isolated as was thought before, but connected at a great depth with other countercurrents. After the Cromwell expedition had discovered, in 1961, an under-current most remarkable for its origin, symmetry and unalterable position in regard to the equator, scientists thought that currents with similar physical properties might exist in the equatorial part of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans* The existence of a deep water equatorial counter-current *See: "Equatorial undercurrents," Oceanus, Vol. VIII, No. 1. Sept. 1961, and " 'R.V. Crawford's" work", Vol. IX, No. 4, June 1963. 20 was established by a special expedition of the Marine Hydrophysical Institute of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences headed by Georgi Ponomarenko and Academician Vasili Shuleikin. The cur- rent was named after their ship the 'Mikhail Lomonosov1 in honor of the great Russian scientist of that name. In the area of Java the expedition of the 'Vityaz' discovered another deep counter-current flowing east and explored a number of other subsurface currents, both unknown and previously discovered. The circulation of deep ocean waters is a problem which interests many scientists. Contemporary research tends to show that the deep waters circulate rather fast and there is no reason to think that these waters are almost immobile, as was once thought. Instrumentation Instruments are now used for the exploration of currents at all depths of the world ocean, and for mineral pros- pecting in the earth's crust. Since sound spreads far under water, in some condi- tions over hundreds and thousands of kilometers, scientists measure ocean depths and search for fish with the aid of acoustic instruments. The Oceanological Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences has a labora- tory of sea electronics, directed by Nikolai Vershinsky. Here engineers and designers work on the construction of automatic drills for mining minerals in the ocean bottom, in the deeper layers of the earth's crust and in the earth's mantle. Vershinsky's laboratory also designs television sets for exploration of the sea bottom and to aid in the search for sunken ships, archaeological studies, and for the investigation of fishing grounds. But, no matter how good the instru- ments are, ocean exploration will be limited until men learn to travel un- hampered at any depth under water. This oceanologist's dream will surely come true, as did Tsailkovsky's dream of cosmic flights. American, Australian and Japanese scientists conducted chemical analyses of ocean water during the 35th cruise of the 'Vityaz' in the Indian Ocean. Mr. D. A. McGill of Woods Hole taking a sample of water from a 200 liter bathometer (large volume sampler). See "A cruise on the 'Vityaz'", by D. A. McGill, Oceanus, Vol. IX, No. 3, March 1963. AMERICA'S CUP RACE O 'N September 15th Associates and their guests will depart Woods Hole to view the opening race for the America's Cup between ah, we do not know as of going to press. Anyway, the most likely defenders: 'American Eagle1 and 'Constellation' both count Associates among the mem- bers of the syndicates owning the vessels. Photos: jan hahn 23 H .OW do waves grow in size? What process of the wind first starts a calm sea surface into forming capillary waves? This is not an aerial photograph but a picture taken from about 10 feet above the sea surface in the open ocean when the wind started to produce "micro waves". MBI. WHOI LIBRARY UH l?zi 0 Associates of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (A private, non-profit, research organization) J.HE ASSOCIATES of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are a group of individuals, corporations and other organizations who, because of their love for the sea and interest in science and education, support and encourage the research and related activities of the Institution. Membership dues in the Associates are as follows: Member $50 Contributing Member $100 Patron $500 Life Member $1,000 Corporate Member $ 1 ,000 Sustaining Corporate Member $5,000 or more All contributions and dues are tax deductible to the extent provided by law. HOMER H. EWING, President JOHN A. GIFFORD, Secretary RONALD A. VEEDER, Executive Assistant EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHARLES F. ADAMS PAUL HAMMOND WINSLOW CARLTON NOEL B. McLEAN W. VAN ALAN CLARK HENRY S. MORGAN PRINCE S. CROWELL MALCOLM S. PARK F. HAROLD DANIELS GERARD SWOPE, JR. JOHN A. GIFFORD THOMAS J. WATSON, JR. JAMES H. WICKERSHAM Contents VOL. XI, No. 1, Sept. 1964 Articles DEEP OCEAN SONIC FISHES fay N. 8. Marshall A MOUSTACHED COPEPOD by K. Hulsemann SOVIET OCEANOLOGY by L Zenkevitch Features CORRECTION H. B. BIGELOW MEDAL BEAUTY OF THE OCEAN AMERICA'S CUP CAPILLARY WAVES 8 14 1O 1 1 12 22 24 Published by the ' INSTITUTION ^-- • •* •* HJASSACHUSETTS