Meeting Abstract
Most decapod crustaceans living at 700 m or deeper are known only from dead specimens, whose habitat and behavior in life remains unknown. The NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer deploys a two-part remotely operated vehicle system: the camera sled Seiros and the main collecting and photographic vehicle Deep Discoverer (DD2). The ROV system can send live video and still camera feed by satellite to interested scientists on shore. Able to focus on subjects in detail, the DD2 has transmitted remarkable images of diverse invertebrates on rocky substrates. Among the latest images are one showing presumed filter feeding by a stylodactylid shrimp, a consistent association between certain homolid crabs and sea anemones, a peculiar “gait” in parapagurids carrying sea anemones, host specificity in various chirostylid squat lobsters and thorid shrimps, but less specificity in shrimps of the genus Bathypalaemonella. The DD2 has limited collecting capability so many of the decapods remain unidentified to species or even genus. The diversity of associations among these decapods on seamounts and other hard surfaces hints at complex deep ecosystems and warns of potential damage from deep-sea fishing or mining.
