L.B. biologist visits ocean floor
Press Telegram 3/27/08
Miles below sea level, cloaked in darkness and weighed down by thousands of pounds of pressure, the environment of the ocean floor is an area few have seen.
Marine biologist Raymond Wilson, an associate professor at Cal State Long Beach, is among a select group of people who has visited the ocean floor, thanks to a ride in the deep-sea research vessel called ALVIN. The vessel is famous for its use in the 1986 exploration of the wreckage of the Titanic.
Last August, Wilson climbed into the submarine and descended more than 13,000 feet - or about 2 1/2 miles - to reach the ocean floor in the Pacific, about 125 miles southwest of Santa Maria.
Wilson took two trips to the ocean floor in ALVIN - operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass. - as part of his research on rat-tail fish.
While on the ocean floor, Wilson stared face-to-face with a rat-tail, whose head was pressed against one of the submarine's windows, or view ports.
For Wilson, who began studying rat-tail fish nearly 30 years ago, it was a special moment.
"I'm happy to be able to get there up close and personal like that," he said.
Named for their long, tapering tails, the type of rat-tails Wilson studies mainly scavenge the ocean floor for parts of animals that drift to the bottom, such as chunks of crab or squid.
Wilson's species of rat-tail fish can range up to about 3 1/3 feet long and weigh up to eight pounds.
The population of rat-tails in the area in which Wilson dived has increased over 14 years of scientific measurements, he said.
Two species of rat-tail live in the deep-sea area Wilson explored with ALVIN last year. At that extreme depth, the fish experience 6,056 pounds of pressure per square inch.
That's more than 400 times the atmospheric pressure humans experience on the earth's surface - a mere 14.7 pounds per square inch.
Wilson's mission for the dives: Visually identify and count the rat-tail fish from the sub to get a better idea of the proportion of the two species in the area.
By counting and visually identifying the rat-tails, Wilson hoped to get a clearer notion of which of the two species accounts for the greater share of the population increase in the area.
Wilson boarded a ship carrying ALVIN at San Francisco. Other researchers working on other projects were also on board to use the sub.
Wilson, who had previous experience with ALVIN dives, climbed into the six-foot-diameter sphere, crowded with equipment.
The sub took about 2 hours and 15 minutes to reach the ocean floor.
When asked if he got nervous during the descent, Wilson gives a nonchalant answer.
At those depths, "there is no 911 obviously, so, sure, there is a certain amount of tension," he said.
Because the descent occurs at a steady velocity, Wilson didn't feel like he was sinking while on the way to the ocean floor.
After reaching the floor in the first dive, they could stay there only for 15 minutes before they were forced to surface due to a mechanical problem.
Wilson had better luck when he made his next dive at the site about nine days later, getting the opportunity to spend several hours at the ocean floor trying to observe and count the two rat-tail species.
The two species look very similar - they are most easily distinguished by their different shape of teeth, he said.
Wilson was able to look at the fish through the view ports. But unfortunately, he was unable to get a good enough look to spot the subtle features that would help him to reliably distinguish the two species, he said.
Although Wilson obtained pictures of the fish from his own personal camera he used inside the sub and from the cameras mounted on ALVIN, many of the photos were taken from angles that made identification impossible, he said.
Nevertheless, Wilson has no regrets about the ALVIN dives last August.
"You don't get a chance like this very often," he said.
But the ride isn't for pleasure. On the descent, scientists are busy, reviewing notes and readying equipment, although they also can listen to music and drink some coffee.
Wilson said he feels privileged to have had the opportunity to the visit the otherworldly ocean floor.
"It's always been a fascinating habitat," he added.