MBARI’s first 4K footage of a barreleye fish offers a rare chance to study how its unusual eyes work in the ocean’s dim twilight zone.
The day’s deep-sea research was over when a fish with a transparent head came into view. Research Specialist Shannon Johnson spotted it as MBARI’s pilots were “flying” the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Doc Ricketts back to the surface for recovery, and she called for them to stop.
The animal was a barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma), approximately 600 meters (1,970 feet) underwater and 90 kilometers (55 miles) offshore. For the MBARI scientists working aboard the research vessel David Packard, this was only the organization’s eleventh encounter with the species.
Senior Scientist Steven Haddock and researchers from MBARI’s Biodiversity and Biooptics Team were on the eight-day Diving Deep for Delicate Drifters expedition, studying gelatinous animals such as jellies, siphonophores, and ctenophores, also known as comb jellies. They combined scuba diving in open water near the surface with ROV surveys hundreds of meters below, filming and collecting animals to better understand how they have adapted to life in the deep water column.
Most of the scientists had already moved to the ship’s wet lab to prepare to catalog the specimens arriving with the ROV. When news of the barreleye reached them, they ran back to the control room. The encounter was an unexpected finish to a long, productive week of research.
“Seeing a barreleye fish is a rare treat. Crew from across the ship joined the science team in the control room, mesmerized by this remarkable animal. Deep-sea animals capture the imagination, creating wonder and awe that we hope will inspire stewardship of the largest living space on Earth,” said Haddock.
A rare close-up in 4K
The team spent approximately 20 minutes observing the fish with Doc Ricketts’ high-resolution 4K camera, examining its body and behavior and experimenting with different lighting conditions to show its transparent head shield. This was MBARI’s first barreleye sighting filmed in 4K and its first from the new flagship research vessel.
ROV Pilot/Technician Cameron Law also maneuvered Doc Ricketts close enough to record the fish with the vehicle’s virtual reality (VR) camera. The resulting 3D stereo imagery could contribute to future education and outreach efforts.
MBARI has completed roughly 7,000 ROV dives and recorded more than 41,000 hours of deep-sea video during nearly 40 years of ocean exploration. Its previous sighting of Macropinna was in 2021. This summer, MBARI researchers leading an expedition with Schmidt Ocean Institute in the mid-Atlantic Ocean recorded another species of barreleye, the binocular fish (Winteria telescopa).
A transparent shield for swiveling eyes
Earlier MBARI observations by Senior Scientist Bruce Robison and Research Specialist Kim Reisenbichler helped reveal how Macropinna uses its unusual eyes to feed. In the ocean’s dim twilight zone, the fish’s large fins keep it stable and allow it to maneuver as it hovers, looking upward for the silhouettes of prey. Once it spots food, its large, tubular eyes rotate beneath the transparent dome to keep the target in view. The gelatinous shield also protects those eyes when the fish plucks small crustaceans caught in the stinging tentacles of deep-sea siphonophores.
The researchers did not collect the barreleye, but their footage will support continued research on this elusive species. The Biodiversity and Biooptics Team studies how marine animals interact with light and has extensively investigated deep-sea visual systems. Its close-up examination of Macropinna’s eyes will help researchers better understand vision in the twilight zone.
Pigments in the lenses of the fish’s eyes are thought to serve a similar function to the green pigments in the eyes of the strawberry squid (Histioteuthis heteropsis), a deep-sea neighbor the team has previously studied.
“Macropinna reminds us of the surprising ways that animals have adapted to thrive in the ocean’s midwater,” said Haddock. “So many of them survive by looking for subtle optical cues, like a shadow passing overhead, and this sets off evolutionary competition, pitting bioluminescent camouflage against increasingly sophisticated visual capabilities.”
Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.
Follow us on Google and Google News.