"Life Without Light" A tour through the Cold-Seep Habitats in the Gulf of Mexico

Quicktime Videos
Animal Life and Scientists at Work
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Animal life videos

	Here we see a tiny eel poking its way through some tube worms.
	Hakes like this one are common visitors to the cold-seeps.
	Here you can see several of the little animals that are endemic to the mussel beds. These polychaete worms, shrimp, and squat lobsters can be found in most of the cold-seep mussel beds.
	This deep sea ray is taking a leisurely swim over the brine pool and the ring of mussels that surrounds it.
	The tube worms in the Gulf of Mexico often cover areas bigger than the infield of a baseball diamond. Here you can get a feel for what it's like to "fly" over a field of tube worms underneath a half mile of ocean.

Scientists at work

To study the growth of the mussels, we collect, measure, and mark them before putting them back in the mussel bed to grow for another year.

Sometimes we turn the camera around to show our friends what it's like to be in a plastic sphere on the ocean bottom. Hi there!

We use this device to stain the tubes of the worms blue. The dye is pumped into the dome for about 4 minutes and then sucked back into its container. After one year we come back and can see the new growth as a white band of tube above the blue stained portion.

Click on "our lab" to visit the last area
of our deep-sea tour.

	To study the growth of the mussels, we collect, measure, and mark them before putting them back in the mussel bed to grow for another year.
	Sometimes we turn the camera around to show our friends what it's like to be in a plastic sphere on the ocean bottom. Hi there!
	We use this device to stain the tubes of the worms blue. The dye is pumped into the dome for about 4 minutes and then sucked back into its container. After one year we come back and can see the new growth as a white band of tube above the blue stained portion.