Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 01/01/2008 - 10:11
Forums
Antarctic Undersea ROV

Hello Ms. Bell and team, i had an interesting question while i was looking over the websites section on your expedition, as i needed to read it for a school project. The question i had was, what sorts of life, if at all, other than Sessile Invertebrates survive at depths and temperatures such as in the McMurdo sound where you sent the ROV.

Nick Menard, Hartford High School Vermont

Tue, 01/01/2008 - 17:30

Mindy Bell

Hi Nick,
Great question!  Besides the sessile invertebrates there are the "swimming" inverts like the jellyfish and nudibranchs, the crawling worms, and lots of starfish and brittle stars.  For a good look at some of the organisms check out:

http://www.peterbrueggeman.com/nsf/fguide/index.html

There are also several species of fish that have a unique form of antifreeze in their blood so it doesn't freeze.  And when the sea ice starts to break up there are also Weddell seals and the Emperor and Adelie Penguins.  So the undersea world is rich and diverse!