Download Carole`s Answers to Student Questions - Q?rius

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FREQUENTLY ASKED AND PARTICULARLY PERTINENT QUESTIONS ABOUT DEEP CORAL REEFS
From Carole Baldwin’s webcast
Students: Why is it important to find new fish species?
Carole: One reason is to help answer one of the top questions in science: How many species live on our planet? Also, the
more complete our knowledge of fish species diversity, the better we can understand fish family trees. For example,
let’s say a particular fish family has 50 species, but we only know about the existence of 25 of them. If you were to
describe that family based on only half of its members, what kind of picture of the family are you getting? Finally, by
improving our understanding of what fishes exist and where they live, we can better argue for marine protected areas—
i.e., portions of the ocean that are protected from fishing and other human activities.
Students: Why haven't scientists discovered all the fish yet?
Carole: Well first of all, we should use the term “fishes” vs. “fish.” If you’re referring to more than one species, the
correct term is “fishes.” If you’re referring to multiple individuals of a single species, the correct term is “fish.” I’ll bet
some of your English teachers don’t even know that! The main reason that we haven’t discovered all the marine fishes
yet is that the ocean is enormous: it covers about 70% of our planet and, because of its extreme depth (the average
depth is approximately 12,000 ft., the deepest point about 36,000 ft.), it has an enormous volume. More than 95% of
the livable space on our planet is in the ocean, and it’s estimated that we’ve explored less than 5% of it! Technology is
another reason. Scuba gear, which allows scientists to explore to depths of about 150 ft., has only been around for
about 60 years, and submersibles, which allow us to go deeper, are relatively rare and expensive.
Students: What is your deepest dive so far?
Carole: In the Galapagos Islands, I went to 3,000 ft. in the Johnson Sea Link Submersible.
Students: How long do you stay underwater in the sub?
Carole: Usually for about four hours, but I was on one seven-hour dive… with no bathroom!
Students: What is the cost of doing research like this?
Carole: The Curasub in Curacao costs about $5,000 per day, which is inexpensive relative to most submersible diving
because it doesn’t require a mother ship to deploy and retrieve it. They lift it with a crane and place it in the water, you
climb in, and down you go. However, the Curasub now has a mother ship that has been renovated to carry it to other
places, and the cost of the ship + sub is about $20,000 per day. I have been able to obtain private funds through the
Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, and the Prince Albert of Monaco II Foundation for the Smithsonian’s Deep
Reef Observation Project (DROP) for diving right off of Curacao, but I am now looking for funding to move the ship and
sub around to other areas of the Caribbean. Because the ship and sub are set up for use by scientists and non-scientists
alike, one plan is to fund scientific submersible research through donations by adventure travelers who can travel on the
ship with scientists and participate in research expeditions.
Students: Have you [ever] seen a Blobfish?
Carole: Only a preserved one in the Smithsonian’s National Fish Collection—a “library” of preserved fishes from all over
the world. I’d love to see a living one!
Students: Have you ever unintentionally found a new species?
Carole: Finding a new species is rarely a “eureka-like” moment—i.e., where you look out of the window of the
submersible and say “that’s something new!” Typically determining if you have a new species requires collecting a
specimen and then comparing its color pattern, morphology, and DNA to known species. So, yes, I’ve unintentionally
found a lot of new species.
Students: What is the strangest sea creature you have encountered?
Carole: Deep-water chimaeras, the poorly known cousins of sharks and sting rays. Also called ratfish, they can grow to 8
feet or more. Like stingrays, they have big pectoral fins, and they use them to “fly” through the ocean. Despite their size,
they are very graceful, and curious too. On one sub dive in the Galapagos Islands, a big chimaera that was swimming in
front of the sub turned and started coming towards us – probably attracted to the sub’s lights. The pilot stopped the
sub, and the fish swam right up to the front window of the sub. It was a magical moment.
Students: Why don’t baby fish look more like their parents?
Carole: Because they have adapted to living in a different environment—the surface currents of the ocean, which is also
called “the plankton.” Different habitats require different survival strategies, so in larval fishes we often see different
color patterns from those in adults, as well as different morphological features such as elongate fin rays and spiny
projections on the head or body. Note that in most freshwater fishes, the young look like miniature adults. This is
because they don’t inhabit a different environment. Many freshwater fishes make nests where they deposit their eggs,
and when the babies hatch from the egg, they grow up in the same environment as the adults. Most marine fishes on
the other hand reproduce by broadcast spawning, which involves releasing thousands of eggs into the water column.
Each egg has a tiny oil droplet that makes it buoyant, so it rises to the surface. The larva hatches from the egg and drifts
around in the surface currents for days to months depending on the species. This is the dispersal stage for many marine
fishes. Adults of many species, including reef fishes, don’t stray very far from “home.”
Students: What are scientists doing to get rid of the lionfish in non-native areas?
Carole: We try to remove as many as we can through spear fishing, and many environmental groups host lionfish derbies
where locals spear hundreds to thousands of lionfish at a time. Scientists are also trying to learn more about where they
live and what they eat in efforts to determine what their impact on native small fish and invertebrate populations might
be. The bad news about lionfish is that they have a potent neurotoxin at the base of their fin spines that causes
excruciating pain when injected into a human. The good news is that lionfish are delicious. So scientists and other
concerned citizens are trying to help find safe ways to harvest lionfish so that they can be sold commercially. If you see it
in your grocery store or on a restaurant menu, try it! You’ll be helping the ocean.
Students: What is your favorite part of your job?
Carole: I love the diversity of tasks involved with my job – field work where I snorkel, scuba dive, and sub dive; lab work
where I look at specimens under the microscope and x-ray them so that I can count internal structures such as
vertebrae; computer work where I write scientific papers and grant proposals to obtain funds to do more field work;
DNA analyses, where I can see how similar or different a potential new species is to things that we already know exist;
and photography, where I capture the living color patterns of fishes before they lose them in preservative. I also love
traveling and learning about different cultures, especially the food!