ROV Dives Deep for Gorgonians

摘要

'Stop!" shouts Veronica Franklin, pointing to a video monitor. "There's one right there." Nudging his joystick forward, pilot Mark Talkovic guides the VW-Beetle-size submersible toward a silt-covered rock where a lone predatory tunicate stands slackjawed in the deep ocean current. It's the first item on today's shopping list, and it will make a fine addition to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's one-of-a-kind exhibit, Mysteries of the Deep. I'm sitting in the control room of the Point Lobos research vessel, a converted oil supply ship operated by the aquarium's sister organization, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). Video monitors, stacked floor to ceiling, detail the operation of the ship's remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ventana 1,400 feet below, and provide a rare window into a world where oddball creatures thrive in freezing temperatures, low oxygen, high pressure, and complete darkness. And on this chilly summer dawn, it's our mission to bring a few of them home.