For example, the AWI’s Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (OFOBS) consists of a downward-pointing camera and flash, together with a sonar system that scans the seafloor topography to its left and right; all of which is housed in a protective metal frame. Biological collections from the Curasub off Curaçao have resulted in the discovery of numerous new and rare species of fishes, marine mollusks, echinoderms and crustaceans. This project utilizes the taxonomic expertise of more than a dozen Smithsonian scientists and employs modern molecular tools and digital photography and videography to fully document species and genetic diversity on deep reefs.

• Often found resting on the seafloor, tripod fish can pump fluid into their elongated fins to make them like rigid stilts (or as their name implies, a tripod), sometimes a few feet high.
• The deep sea, a vast and largely unexplored realm 200m beneath the ocean’s surface, is one of Earth’s most mysterious and awe-inspiring places.
• Deep-sea mining would involve extracting rocky deposits called polymetallic nodules or manganese nodules from the bottom of the ocean floor.
• Natural light does not penetrate the deep ocean, with the exception of the upper parts of the mesopelagic.
• Depending on the respective region, this can be at very different water depths.
• Organisms that hope to survive in these habitats have to face a range of challenges – from a lack of food, to cold and perpetual darkness, to extreme pressures (e.g. 200 times surface pressure at a depth of 2,000 metres).

Fish, too, find shelter within the canyon walls, and also a good place to catch a meal. Natural light does not penetrate the deep ocean, with the exception of the upper parts of the mesopelagic. Since photosynthesis is not possible, plants and phytoplankton cannot live in this zone, and as these are the primary producers of almost all of earth’s ecosystems, life in this area of the ocean must depend on energy sources from elsewhere. Except for the areas close to the hydrothermal vents, this energy comes from organic material drifting down from the photic zone. The sinking organic material is composed of algal particulates, detritus, and other forms of biological waste, which is collectively referred to as marine snow. Deep-sea fisheries take place between depths of 200 and meters, and target species on continental shelves, seamounts and ocean ridges using bottom and deep mid-water trawls, gillnets, longlines and pots.
Right next to the coast is the continental shelf, the submerged part of the continent. This area is characterized by shallow water and mostly exists within the sunlit epipelagic zone. Traveling away from the coast the seafloor will begin to slope down through the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones into deeper depths.

Is Deep-Sea Mining Necessary?

Hydrogen sulfide is normally poisonous, but the Riftia worm has a special adaptation that isolates it from the rest of the body. Their blood contains hemoglobin that binds tightly to both oxygen and hydrogen sulfide. Further investigation into these unique habitats showed that many of the other creatures that live by the vents also rely on symbiotic bacteria. The yeti crab waves its arms in the water to help cultivate bacteria on tiny arm hairs which it then consumes.
The other end grows into a feathered fan that lets them extract oxygen from the water. Larvae that arrive later or land on another worm, become males, but never really grow beyond the larval form. Instead they live within the females’ bodies as parasites—sometimes over a hundred live in one female host. Scientists have found about 25 species of bone eating worms since they were first discovered in 2002, and many more are thought to exist. Some are specialized burrowers that dig within the bone for the fat, while others pick apart the surface layers.

Red Sea crisis

Deep-sea fish have different adaptations in their proteins, anatomical structures, and metabolic systems to survive in the Deep sea, where the inhabitants have to withstand great amount of hydrostatic pressure. Deep sea mining for rare earth elements and other critical minerals could start as early as 2026, even as 38 countries have called for a moratorium on it. Judah pointed out that while the research drew from the most complete data available from the IUCN, much of the deep sea remains unexplored, so the study’s findings likely underrepresent the risks chondrichthyan species face. This process allowed the authors to identify 30 shark, ray and chimaera species in areas earmarked for mining. These species include whale sharks (Rhincodon typus), mako sharks (genus Isurus), manta rays (genus Mobula) and deep-sea dwellers such as chocolate skates (Rajella bigelowi), megamouth sharks (Megachasma pelagios) and small-eyed rabbitfish (Hydrolagus affinis).

Whale Falls

• These worms house bacteria within their “roots” that take advantage of the sulfur in the bones to make energy in a process called chemosynthesis.
• In turn, many other organisms directly or indirectly live off of these bacteria, while others live in symbiosis with them.
• The deep sea oscillates between visibility and invisibility depending on the stakes involved.
• But unlike most life on earth that uses light from the sun as a source of energy, these bacteria produce energy through a chemical reaction that uses minerals from the vents.
• Deep sea mining for rare earth elements and other critical minerals could start as early as 2026, even as 38 countries have called for a moratorium on it.
• The conclusion invites reflection on the deep sea as an ethnographic field, encouraging a rethinking of how fieldwork is conducted in unconventional or hard-to-access environments.

Attuning ourselves to these forgotten heroes, buried in the seabed and disturbed by the drilling of robotic machines, invites a critical rethinking of the ongoing territorialisation of the ocean. These visions ‘re-turn colonial geo-logics, slowly tearing at colonial pasts, presents, and futures in an iterative, ongoing process of imaginative decolonisation’ (Stuer 2025, 33-4). The ghosts of a violent past call us to awareness, mourning, and action, urging us to envision oceanic futures that resist repetition and reclaim submerged histories (Patrizi 2024).
As a result, scientists working in the deep sea constantly encounter new species and other surprises. For example, in February 2021 an AWI team discovered the world’s largest fish breeding colony in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea. Images taken with a camera system towed by the research icebreaker Polarstern captured countless nests of the ice fish species Neopagetopsis ionah on the seafloor, at depths from 420 to 535 metres.

Interesting fish gallery

What distinguishes the submarine cyborg is not merely its ability to operate within boundaries but its capacity to dissolve them entirely, merging interior and exterior spaces. Curator Karen Osborn wants to know how and why animals adapt in order to survive in a cold, dark, and pressurized environment. Many animals that live in this largest of the earth’s habitats are very bizarre and dramatically different from their closest relatives. For example, some make an extreme effort to see, building huge bulbous eyes that can detect even the smallest glimmer of light, while others completely forfeit any form of sight and instead rely on heightened scent and touch. Since most animal groups have representatives living in the open ocean, learning about the differences in the way these animals live compared to their relatives in shallow water tells us a lot about how this environment changes and shapes the many animals that survive there.

This is the continental slope, the transition between Earth’s continental surface and Earth’s oceanic seafloor. As the slope levels out at the continental rise (roughly 19,700 feet or 6,000 m) it gives way to the abyssal plain, the long stretch that accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world sea floor. The hadalpelagic is the very deepest part of the ocean that includes the ocean trenches.
These nodules are thought to contain higher concentrations of transition metals and REEs. However, current technology remains in its early stages and is years away from mainstream deployment. The growth of deep-sea mining may also be slowed by many researchers’ opposition to deep-sea mining due to the long-lasting damage mining has had on previously untouched ocean floor ecosystems.
Proponents of deep-sea mining argue that it can help meet the world’s pressing need for critical minerals, which will likely only continue to grow as countries invest more in decarbonization, digitization, defense and infrastructure. Estimates suggest that global demand for nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements may double by 2040 in a net-zero emissions scenario. Several studies have Deep Sea concluded that there is no shortage of mineral resources on land, but the world still faces significant hurdles in locating viable reserves and quickly scaling up mining and processing operations.

Under the light of the moon they feast on the phytoplankton that grew during the day. Then, when the sun comes out and there is enough light for predators to see them again, the zooplankton return to the deep darkness. Diel vertical migrations are likely the largest daily migration on the planet. A cold seep is a place on the ocean floor where fluids and gases trapped deep in the earth percolate up to the seafloor. A cold seep gets its name not because the liquid and gas that emerge are colder than the surrounding seawater, but because they are cooler than the scalding temperature of the similar hydrothermal vent.
A second has been observed on video, however, it has yet to be captured and formally described. Despite the remoteness of the hadalpelagic, humanity still finds a way to interfere—plastic debris has been found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Oceanographers divide the majority of the ocean midwater into five broad zones. The very deepest depth of the ocean is roughly 2,000 meters deeper than Mount Everest is tall—36,070 feet deep (10,994 m)! Each zone has a different mix of species adapted to its specific light level, pressure, temperature, and community.