Researchers Discover Fish Living Half Mile Beneath Antarctic Ice
Posted on January 21, 2015
Researchers were surprised to discover fish living beneath a half mile of Antarctic ice. Researchers from the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) bored through the Ross Ice Shelf and then sent cameras and an ROV down into the drilling hole into the cold (-2 Celsius, 28 degrees Fahrenheit) and perpetually dark waters. There they found fish like the one pictured above.
The WISSARD team used a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) called Deep SCINI to explore 400 square meters around the borehole. The ROV encountered amphipods in addition to the fish. The ROV was developed at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
The ice the WISSARD researchers punched through is 740 meters (nearly 2,500 feet) thick. A geothermal probe was used to bore through the ice. The samples taking during the expedition are the first to sample what is called the "grounding zone," where Antarctic ice, land and sea converge.
Ross Powell, a chief scientist with the WISSARD project and a researcher at Northern Illinois University, tells Scientific American, "I'm surprised. I've worked in this area for my whole career. You get the picture of these areas having very little food, being desolate, not supporting much life."
Powell also says the barren sea bottom is "rocky, like a lunar surface." The Scientific American story says the Deep-SCINI encountered about 20 to 30 fish. The researchers say some of the fish were attracted to the light from the ROV and gradually swam over to see it.