BEEBE PROJECT: ZOOPLANKTON STUDIES IN THE 1987 FIELD SEASON 



Laurence P. Madin 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 



Woods Hole, MA 02543 



ABSTRACT 



Zooplankton research was conducted on 11 dives with the 

 Johnson Sea-Link during the Beebe Project off Bermuda in 1987. 

 The work included documentation of abundance and vertical 

 distribution, collection of new or unusual species, and 

 observations of behavior. A lighted platform was deployed at the 

 site to attract midwater animals, but weather prevented 

 completion of these experiments. Observations on vertical and 

 diel distribution showed evidence of vertical migration in 

 narcomedusae, euphausiids, sergestids and squid. Some near 

 surface, gelatinous species were found throughout the water 

 column, whereas other mesopelagic forms were found only below 300 

 m. A distinctive fauna of red-pigmented organisms from several 

 groups occurred below 700 m. Several new species were seen or 

 collected, including a scyphomedusa in the genus Deepstaria. 



INTRODUCTION 



Origin and Organization of the Beebe Project 



The Beebe Project in 1987 was a multidisciplinary 

 investigation of benthic and pelagic ecology in waters 1000 

 meters deep off Bermuda. Funded mainly by NOAA ' s Office of 

 Undersea Research, with additional support from the National 

 Geographic Society and several private donors, the project 

 brought together 6 primary investigators and their assistants, 

 two submersibles and three support ships for a series of dives in 

 July and early August, 1987. 



The 1987 program was the third incarnation of the Beebe 

 Project. It began in 1984, to commemorate the 50th anniversary 

 of the bathysphere dives made by William Beebe off Bermuda. At 

 that time Emory Kristof of the National Geographic Society and 

 William M. Hamner of UCLA hoped to recreate Beebe ' s dives, using 

 the Johnson Sea-Link . The Project was revived in 1986 with a 

 different focus, when Emory Kristof and Eugenie Clark of the 

 University of Maryland used the Pisces VI to bait and photograph 

 deep sea sharks near Bermuda for a magazine article (Clark et 

 al . , 1986). An expanded Beebe Project, to include studies on 

 sharks, benthic ecology and midwater organisms, was planned 

 during a 1986 conference on Low Cost Submersibles at the 

 University of Rhode Island, and subsequently proposed to 

 NOAA/OUR, with Larry Madin (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) 

 and Bruce Robison (University of California, Santa Barbara) as 

 Co-Principal Investigators. 



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