Editorial: February 2005

Terry presents photos taken on part of the NORFANZ voyage, a joint Australian-New Zealand research expedition conducted in May-June 2003 to explore deep sea habitats and biodiversity in the Tasman Sea.

By Terry Siegel

Keywords: Editorial, Fish, Terry Siegel, Tsunami, Deep Sea Creatures

Instead of explaining how I filter my reef system between consumers and producers of waste, which I'll return to next month, I'll offer material sent to me by Greg Schiemer regarding the recent devastating Tsunami. As you can see below the material was sent to Greg from Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell.

Terry,

I received these pictures second-hand through the Yale Peabody Museum. Supposedly they are deep-sea creatures found seaside after the tsunami. A couple of them look like the creature from the movie "Alien."

Greg Schiemer

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From: Jacques Gauthier
Subject: Fwd: Fw: Deep Sea Creatures - Found At Seaside After TSUNAMI . .

******************************************************
* Gregory J. Watkins-Colwell *
* Herpetology and Ichthyology *
* Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History *
* 170 Whitney Avenue, P. O. Box 208118 *
* New Haven, CT 06520-8118 *
* http://www.peabody.yale.edu *
******************************************************

UPDATE

Apparently the origin of the images is a hoax: http://www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/creature.asp

"Origins: It seems like any unusual or remarkable photographs connected with oceanic phenomena are being attributed to the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004, and this collection of pictures is more of the same.

Although they are genuine images of some rather strange deep-sea creatures, these photographs have nothing to do with the Indian Ocean tsunami. They date from mid-2003 and were taken as part of the NORFANZ voyage, a joint Australian-New Zealand research expedition conducted in May-June 2003 to explore deep sea habitats and biodiversity in the Tasman Sea. These photographs can be viewed on Australia's National Oceans Office web site.

http://www.oceans.gov.au/norfanz/
http://www.oceans.gov.au/norfanz/CreatureFeature.htm

We appologize for the error.

NOTE: All of the below photos can be viewed in full size in its Photo Album.

aphyonus.jpg/variant/xsmall basketwork_eel.jpg/variant/xsmall black_dragonfish.jpg/variant/xsmall blind_lobster.jpg/variant/xsmall blob_fish.jpg/variant/xsmall carrier_shell.jpg/variant/xsmall chimaera_fish.jpg/variant/xsmall chimaera_pup.jpg/variant/xsmall coffinfish.jpg/variant/xsmall crab.jpg/variant/xsmall fangtooth.jpg/variant/xsmall firefly_squid.jpg/variant/xsmall gunard.jpg/variant/xsmall hatchetfish.jpg/variant/xsmall lizard_fish.jpg/variant/xsmall oreo_dory.jpg/variant/xsmall prickly_shark.jpg/variant/xsmall sea_spider.jpg/variant/xsmall shovel_nosed_lobster.jpg/variant/xsmall stargazer.jpg/variant/xsmall stone_crab.jpg/variant/xsmall swimmer_crab.jpg/variant/xsmall tongue_sole.jpg/variant/xsmall umbrella_mouth_gulper_eel.jpg/variant/xsmall viperfish.jpg/variant/xsmall