234 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 22 



Comparative data from similar depths outside the basins is needed 

 but again such data must not be gathered from highs or ridges where 

 the environment is so obviously different. Instead, low gradient slopes 

 with sediments comparable to those of the basins must be selected. 

 It will be of great interest to see whether non-basin slopes are richer 

 or poorer in animal life than the basins, remembering that basins have 

 the positive factor of being food traps. Prof. Dr. Filatova, in her 

 lecture at the 1959 New York Oceanographic Congress, stated that 

 the abyssal areas (2000 or more meters) offshore of southern California 

 were impoverished in comparison to other abyssal areas and she believes 

 that the basins entrap food normally carried to the abyssal floor. Due 

 to lack of cable, the Velero IV has not been able to sample below 

 the Patton escarpment. 



No doubt some important species in the sediments of the basins 

 have been neglected. These are the demersal animals of relatively 

 high motility which move over the bottom or hover just above it, 

 feeding on the bottom and contributing to or detrimenting the bottom 

 in important ways. The use of equipment such as quantitative epi- 

 benthic open-closing trawls and other devices, including the bathyscaphe, 

 are required to assess the importance of this epibenthic fauna. 



