China's ocean-going research vessel Science has collected rare deep-water sea hares in the western Pacific Ocean.
China's ocean-going comprehensive research vessel "Science" officially began investigating a series of seamounts on the southern side of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean on the 27th, and the ship's remotely operated unmanned submersible (ROV) "Discovery" collected rare deep-water sea hares.
On the same day, the "Discovery" on a seamount survey sampling. At a depth of 970 meters, two snail-like mollusks with pink heads and whitish bodies appeared in the high-definition video returned by the submersible in real time. The scientists on board judged them to be sea slugs (commonly known as sea hares), which are very rare in the deep sea. The Discovery operator then accurately sucked the two sea hares into the sampling tank.
Xu Kuidong, chief scientist of the voyage and a researcher at the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the sea slugs, commonly known as sea hares, belong to the snail family, of which more than 3,000 species have been found worldwide and are mainly found in the shallow tropical sea. According to the existing literature, the Northeast Pacific deep water (water depth greater than 200 meters) **** found eight kinds of sea slugs, and the western Pacific deep water has not been found so far recorded. According to reports, the seamount investigated by the submersible Discovery on that day was a flat-topped seamount, with its top located 800 meters below sea level and a height of 1,400 meters. It is in this dive from the bottom of the east side of the seamount to climb up, to carry out the investigation of benthic organisms and rocks and sampling.
The chief scientist of the voyage, researcher Xu Kuidong of the Institute of Oceanography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, introduced that the voyage ****completed 30 stations of the hydrological, chemical and biological surveys, including every six hours ****counting five times of the continuous station operation and the top of the seamounts of a station carried out a continuous 24-hour observation. The scientific research team utilized the shipboard Discovery deep-sea cable-controlled vehicle (ROV) to dive 19 times, and carried out fine investigations on the seamounts,*** obtaining deep-sea giant biological specimens of more than 255 species of organisms and 85 pieces of rock, which is the first time in the five This is one of the five "Science" seamount voyages to obtain the largest number of biological samples, the highest diversity of a voyage, almost the past two "Science" seamount voyages to obtain the total number of species.
The cruise also collected many samples of organisms that had not been seen before or had been seen but not collected, including a variety of corals, polychaetes, mollusks, as well as a number of shrimp, crabs, and fish that are highly mobile and very difficult to collect. These rich samples and preliminary new findings will provide important first-hand information for the study and conservation of seamount biodiversity and ecosystems.
Science is carrying out the mission of "Scientific Investigation of Typical Seamount Ecosystems in the Western Pacific Ocean", which is scheduled to return to Xiamen on June 23rd, according to the National Science and Technology Basic Resources Investigation Special Project.