13 February 2022
Last day
The missions of the EMSO-LO campaign were successfully carried out thanks to a great collaboration between sailors and scientists.
The end of this adventure at sea will mark the beginning of great enthusiasm on land for the discoveries to come! All the work we've done will make it possible to broadcast beautiful images of the deep sea, raising awareness of this universe.
The balance of the deep environment is one of the pillars of life on Earth and deserves every protection.
Photo credit: Nicolas Fromont - @nicolasfromontphoto
Latest observations
Disembarkation is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so it's time for some final observations before the big tidy-up.
What you see is a polychaete worm of the type Tomopteris, and it is one of the rare planktonic species capable of yellow bioluminescence. Why is yellow bioluminescence rare? What role does it play? Which micro-organisms are responsible? The answer to these questions is still not entirely clear...
Scientists interested in bioluminescence are trying to determine its origin and understand its role in communication in the dark.
Photo Credit: Marthe Vienne
Phyllosome
Here's a strange sighting. This animal is larger than the zooplankton previously observed, but it is flat and transparent, which makes it hard to notice! It took Marthe a while to notice!
She found a phyllosome, the planktonic larva of lobsters and slipper lobsters. Unexpectedly, the lobster larva is shaped like a leaf!
In the photo, the animal's head is pointing upwards; the cephalic region is the most developed and the pedunculated eyes are clearly visible!
Photo credit: Marthe Vienne