DEEP SEA DEVILS

Evening Star, Issue 20410, 15 February 1930, Page 21

DEEP SEA DEVILS

HOW SCIENCE TRAPS THEM ' WHALES WITH HEADLIGHTS LURING MONSTERS WITH RADIUM Jet blaqk whales with headlights to show them the way in the darkness a mile under the ocean’s surface, great fish with “ batteries_ discharging .violet rays downward while their eyes peer straight up, and _tisb with grappling hooks attached .to tn# mouth, are among the monsters of tb« deep captured during the summer months by Dr William Beebe, famous American naturalist, director .or tee Bermuda oceanographic expedition or the New York Zoological Society, ott Nonsuch Island. Modern science and mechanics were drawn on to the fullest extent during this expedition; which bas_ accomplished unexpected, results. Hundreds of varieties of'deep-water fish, including scores of specimens heretofore unknown. and, unclassified were capturf4 at the direction of Dr Beebe. _ 'v Some of the most difficult prob fmi of the expedition were the extract di nary and fantastic forms it some or the. deep sea devils. Until this exmui- - tion only two fish with lighting , apparatus were known, and caesa wtro shore fish from the East Ind;.’s. IhC'-e two both had a-sac or, hag'below tn*, eves containing what. wa,s supposed t® be a mass of luminous bacteria. Onespecimen was fitted- wit a .v hint ot black /pigment, which it could drntf up over the light. _ ~, But now, as a result of - Dr fleebe • most recent triumphs, many deep-sea fish with electric lighting apparatus . are known, indicating that fish had outdone man by ages in developing lighting. Some of Dr Beebe’s i specimens of the so-called electric fish were found 600 fathoms ■ (3,000 ft) under the surface, where all living . creature! are accustomed to', constant - blackness* A FORMIDABLE ASSORTMENT. One jet black whale was captured, which had a headlight rising like, a periscope from the top of its head, and casting a brilliant beam of light forward in; the darkness Another variety of fish was found with the ability: to discharge violet lights dojvnward from its body. This is the young Argyopelicus, or silver hatchet; fish. Scientists are making»in exhaustive study of these fish; to determine in detail the means of emanating these light rays. > v J . At one time a rare fish was found m Icelandic waters.' It had two flaps of skin attached to two parts ofitebody. without apparent design. Inside the skin flap was only one organ., _This specimen was a female. some 2ft in length, and the. male of the species was never found. But now Dr Beebe has discovered the young of both sexes —an extremely remarkable catch. Both the male and female are perfect in form and miniatures, of the- fullsized fish. The male captured by the Beebe expedition has a fierce array of small grappling hooks attached- to the mouth. „ One of the rays taken on, the expedition is of the spotted eagle variety, which has an intensely poisonous spine. This fay comes from an interesting family, which includes the electric ray, or torpedo..' This ray has many of the properties of an electric battery. By some marvellous means it has produced electric cells from the i muscles of its body, which enable it to.stun and kill a fish. _ • . The electricity , from this fish ' will decompose water and actually produce a spark. How the eletcric power of the ray affects other fish may be indicated by v the fact that an electric fay which was captured and" opened contained a 21b eel and a 11b flounder. Other rays have been found containing 1 41 b fish in their stomachs.. HOOKS BAITED. WITH RADIUM. The electric apparatus is made .up of two sets of tiny hexagonal cells, some 400 to the set, at the base; of the pectoral fins. , ‘ One of the: new devices utilised by these scientific deep sea fishermen was a radium lure. The radium was used as a luminous ' coating on hooks, attached to. sounding wires about a mile long m depths where there xs no daylight. Perhaps no fisherman has ever .had a thrill ;such as that experienced when there was a “ nibble” on .this lighted hook, and the first' catch was raised, - a squid, which is a member of the. octopus family. Dr Beebe said that so far. as he was aWare radium, lighted fish books had never been lised before. 1 The glow hooks he uses are nearly a foot long, and .he hoped to catch some unusually gigantic deep-sea monster. That there are amazingly huge creatures of the deep has been indicated by the presence. of huge scale in nets lowered into the blackness —but the nets have never been strong enough to hold the deep sea devils. ■ , One of Dr Beebe’s chief troubles was that his field of research off Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, was too rich. During his expedition he pioneered, for-as a rule modern expeditions of the kind find little that is absolutely new and are devoted to a more accurate study of what is already kpown — But; -Dr Beebe and other members of his expedition found about as much that was new as that which was old. _ Dr Beebe used the same method of intensified study that he utilised in his scientific work in the jungle, and 'this is the first time in the history of science that a single spot in the ocean has been studied so - thoroughly. - The Beebe expedition es one of the most completely equipped ever.,to undertake such a study of under-water life. The equipment includes many unusual devices such as the luminous fish hooks mentioned; mile-long wires and cables: specially devised nets with trap mouths designed to close when some of the mile-deep fish stray into them, despite the “ headlights. ” with which some of the fish are equipped. Tire paraphernalia ■ includes costly cameras, deep-sea diving equipment, and laboratories for examination of the fish. 'When a catch is brought up it is studied by eminent scientists for the laboratories, preserved, painted from life py artists, revealing, as many ' of its secrets as science can demand.