Only a scattering of light penetrates the deep water, more than 300 feet beneath the ocean surface off the coast of Guam. It's like twilight to the human eye, even in the middle of the day.
GUAM — Only a scattering of light penetrates the deep water, more than 300 feet beneath the ocean surface off the coast of Guam. It's like twilight to the human eye, even in the middle of the day.This part of the ocean, known as the upper twilight zone, is one of the least explored ecosystems on Earth because it's so difficult, expensive and dangerous to reach.
It's only accessible by submarine, remotely-operated vehicle or by specially trained technical divers.But humans are starting to unravel the mysteries of life here. In November, a group of scientific divers from the California Academy of Sciences successfully navigated a series of perilously deep dives.Their mission was to fetch monitoring devices lodged in Guam's deep reefs that have been collecting data on marine life and ocean temperatures for more than eight years.The divers found a swath of ocean populated by weird and wild creatures, from delicate corals and shimmering worms to spiky sea slugs and hairy crabs. The monitors are also providing an insight into temperature changes, suggesting climate change may be having an impact even in these deep waters.Diving to the ocean's upper twilight zone is a treacherous endeavor. Standard gear simply doesn't cut it at these depths — recreational divers breathing compressed air don't venture below 130 feet. Instead, trained technical divers need specialized equipment allowing them to breathe a cocktail of helium and air.The deeper the divers go, the more gas gets dissolved into their bodies, and it needs to come out very slowly to avoid decompression sickness, known as the bends, where bubbles form in the blood, causing severe pain and even death.The only way to avoid this is to ascend very slowly, stopping every 10 feet or so. "If we stay just 10 minutes at 500 feet, it would take us six hours to go up," said Luiz Rocha, one of the divers and an ichthyology curator at the California Academy of Sciences. It means they rarely get more than 30 minutes to do their work.But over eight dives in November, Rocha and the team managed to safely collect 13 monitoring devices. These ridged structures are made up of 1-foot-square PVC plates that function as artificial reefs on which animals can settle and grow. They "are essentially small underwater hotels that coral reef organisms colonize over time," Rocha said.The retrieved monitors — which look like works of art, splashed with vivid hues of amber, burnt orange, deep blues and pinks — were tak
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