Day 14 R/V Point Sur

The typhoon storm is supposed to hit us late tomorrow night. So, we’ll be heading back into port tomorrow evening. Hopefully it won’t get too bad out here.

This morning the 5:30 am trawl came up with a huge abyssicola skate. Look how big she is!! Yes, it is a female. The third picture is the shell gland. This is where the skate makes the egg case for the baby.







The camera was recovered from 1000 m. There were a lot of hagfish in the photos. I wanted to show you a picture of a hag fish actually inside the fish, but the third photo was the best I could find. Hagfish can’t get past the thick skin of animals because they have no jaw. They do have dental plates, but they are inside their body. Often times, hagfish work their way into dead animals through eye sockets, gill slits, and mouths. (Don't forget that you can enlarge the photos by clicking on it.)







Here are some more photos of a hagfish. You will see their eyespots, their nostril and mouth, and in the last photo, their eggs.







The second trawl today was to 500 m. A different skate was caught today. A file-tail catshark was also caught. You will see it in the video below.









Tomorrow morning, there will be another trawl. We will recover the camera and respirometer, and then it will probably be time to head back into port before the storm hits. I'm looking forward to going back to school. I miss you guys.




:)



“This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0727135. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).”