HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

DEEP-SEA EXPLORER TO REVEAL RECENT DISCOVERIES TO THE PUBLIC

FT. PIERCE -- On Wednesday, March 2, Harbor Branch deep-sea explorer Dr. Edith Widder will use photos and video from a recent expedition called Deep Scope to take the public on a tour of bizarre life in the depths of the Gulf of Mexico, including a large, never-before-seen squid species. The talk, called "Deep Scope: A Window into the Deep," will be the second in the 2005 Harbor Branch Ocean Science Lecture Series.

Widder, with a team of scientists from Harbor Branch and other institutions, explored a number of deep-sea areas more than 2,000 feet down in the Gulf last fall using the institution's Johnson-Sea-Link I submersible and innovative new technologies. These included a camera system called Eye-in-the-Sea that uses red light invisible to deep-sea animals to unobtrusively observe them for the first time. The system captured video of a six-foot squid, a huge shark, and giant deep-sea "bugs" jockeying for position on a bait bag, all of which will be shown.

Widder will also demonstrate how the team used a special light and filter system to search the deep sea for fluorescent animals and found the world's first fluorescent shark. The scientists also explored the possibility that some marine life uses polarized light to spot prey that would otherwise be invisible in the same way that polarized sunglasses increase clarity when users look into water. Both fluorescence and polarization phenomena will be revealed to the audience in spectacular photographic detail.

Dr. Edith Widder is a Senior Scientist in Harbor Branch's Division of Marine Science, and has been at Harbor Branch for over 15 years. She is also an Adjunct Research Professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department of Johns Hopkins University, a Distinguished Scientist Adjunct at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and an Adjunct Professor of Biological Science at both Florida Institute of Technology and Florida Atlantic University. She has participated in over 50research expeditions--30 as chief scientist--and has made over 300 dives in the Johnson-Sea-Link submersibles. She is a certified deep submersible pilot for the single-person submersibles Wasp, Deep Rover, and Deep Worker.

In 1985, working from a Deep Rover, Widder was the first person to make video recordings of bioluminescence in the ocean, which is the light chemically produced by many open-ocean animals. She is a world authority on the measurement of bioluminescence and co-holds a patent on the U.S. Navy's standard device for measuring bioluminescence throughout the world's oceans. Her research in bioluminescence has been featured on the BBC, PBS, Discovery Channel, and in National Geographic. Besides being an author of over 60scientific publications, Widder has produced two children's books on bioluminescence (The Bioluminescence Coloring Book, now in its second printing, and Lucinda's Lamps: A Mermaid's Guide to the Lights in the Sea [in press]), and an award-winning educational video called Secret Lights in the Sea. She is widely recognized as a gifted speaker who both educates and entertains her audience.

Widder's talk will be held in the newly renovated auditorium of the Johnson Education Center on the Harbor Branch Campus, 5600 US 1 North, Ft. Pierce, Fla. at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2. High-res photos of Widder and her deep-sea research are available to the media upon request. Please direct press inquiries, including interview and photo requests, to Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu. General questions about the series should be directed to the Marine Education Office at 772-465-2400 ext. 506 or education@hboi.edu.

Additional events in the series will be held on consecutive Wednesdays through April 13 (see full schedule below). Each talk is free to the public, and followed by a meet-the-speaker reception.

February 23 - John Reed - Deep Sea Reefs Discovered off Florida

March 2 - Edie Widder - Deep Scope: A Window into the Deep

March 9 - Megan Davis and Serena Cox - The Lobster Crawl: A Very Spiny Event

March 16 - Ned Smith - Upwelling and Downwelling in the Ocean: More Important Than You Might Have Thought

March 23 - Shirley Pomponi - After the Storms: Harbor Branch Moving Forward

March 30 - Greg Bossart - Harmful Algal Blooms, Biotoxins and Marine Mammal Mortalities: An Emerging Crisis? (Note: Lectures on this date will be at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.)

April 6 - Peter McCarthy - Marine Microbes: A New Resource for Biotechnology

April 13 - Kevin Gaines - Aquacultured Marine Ornamentals: Sustaining the Aquarium Industry

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.