Haunting the deep sea for 300 million years Ghost sharks – also known as chimaeras or ratfish – are distant cousins of sharks and rays, separated by a whopping 300 million years. Creatures more ancient than dinosaurs, they glide through the darkness of the deep sea...
When burying your head in the sand brings results The giant stargazer, Kathetostoma giganteum, is another fantastic critter we met during our deep-sea surveys. With its ridiculously wide, flattened head, massive pectoral fins and disproportionately small tail, it...
New homeowners or salp murderers? Barrel shrimps are a regular in our midwater tows. All barrel shrimp species are part of the genus Phromina, and they are hard-core homebuilders. A female grabs a salp (a barrel-shaped jellylike plankton) and gobbles up the inside,...
Position: BLAKE Programme Manager/photographer and videographer I once bought a super nice but also expensive handbag. One of my academic colleagues decided it was so ridiculous that he started drawing handbags on my fish diagrams that I was supposed to demonstrate to...
Position: BLAKE Ambassador We decided to spread some Christmas cheer around the boat. One person made some little paper Santa hats and we placed them on a few of the fish we caught, took photos and stuck them in various strategic places around the ship. Let’s just...
