'Abyss Box' to keep deep animals (via Max Blake)

By Jonathan AmosScience correspondent, BBC News, Vancouver

The public are going to get the chance to see live creatures pulled up from the deep ocean in a permanent display.

Normally when organisms are raised from kilometres below the sea surface, they quickly die because of the huge change in pressure.

But scientists have now developed the Abyss Box, which can maintain animals in the extreme environment they need.

The vessel, containing deep-sea crab and shrimp, will go on show at the Oceanopolis aquarium in Brest, France.

The volume of the box is quite small (16 litres) but researchers believe the technology could eventually be scaled up to house larger animals, such as fish.

It is hoped such vessels will enable scientists to study bottom-dwelling creatures over long periods of time - something that is just not possible at the moment.

"We want such basic information as the length of life of a deep-sea animal," explained Dr Bruce Shillito, a marine biologist at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17085542

Yeti Crabs & Ghost Octopus! Unique Life Found at 1st Antarctic Deep-Sea Vents

Scientists doing their first exploring of deep-sea vents in the Antarctic have uncovered a  world unlike anything found around other hydrothermal vents, one populated by new species of anemones, predatory sea stars, and piles of hairy-chested yeti crabs.

It was "almost like a sight from another planet," said expedition leader Alex Rogers, a professor of zoology at Oxford University. 

Even in the eye-popping world of deep-sea vents, the Antarctic discoveries stand out, with the unfamiliar species of crabs found crowded in piles around the warm waters emanating from the seafloor. Many of the animals found at the vents have never been found at hydrothermal vents in other oceans, Rogers said. "To see these animals in such huge densities was just amazing," Rogers told LiveScience.

In the dayless world of deep-sea vents, energy comes not from the sun but from the hydrothermal energy generated in the oceanic crust.

Read more:  http://www.livescience.com/17715-yeti-crabs-antarctic-vents.html