HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Virtual Visit to the Deep-Sea Denizens

FT. PIERCE -- Wednesday, March 29, for the final event in the 2006 Harbor Branch Ocean Science Lecture Series, deep-sea fish expert Tracey Sutton will take the audience on a virtual tour of the all but unknown world of the planet's largest mountain range--the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Miles deep in places and bisecting the Atlantic Ocean, the ridge is home to a huge array of life forms, ranging from the microscopic (plankton), to the nightmarish (deepwater fish such as the fangtooth and dragonfishes), to the giant whales near the surface.

The platform for the virtual expedition will be one of the world's most advanced researched vessels, Norway's G.O. Sars, which Sutton sailed aboard during a recent expedition that was part of the international Census of Marine Life. He will share his experiences as well as spectacular video from the expedition, taken at depths up to 2.5 miles down using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV).

Sutton will explain the adaptations that have allowed numerous animals to flourish in the immense, harsh deep-sea environment, as well as the surprising findings of his own deep-sea fish research. These include the discovery that some species once thought nomadic might in fact be congregating at the ridge and elsewhere to spawn. Finally, he'll explain why several deep-sea research projects are pointing to new threats from deep-sea trawling, and the vital importance of better understanding these ecosystems if they and the important ecological roles they play are to be adequately protected.

SPEAKER BACKGROUND Dr. Tracey Sutton came to Harbor Branch in May 2003, and promptly disappeared for the next 2 months to sail on research cruises off New England and Iceland. Sutton is now investigating the ecological structure of various oceanic ecosystems, including the northern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the West Florida shelf, the deep Gulf of Mexico, and the northeast U.S. continental slope. He is a native Floridian, born in the pandhandle town of Milton, but grew up in Mobile, Ala. He received his B.S. in zoology, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biological oceanography from the University of South Florida. Before coming to Harbor Branch, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he participated in research with the National Marine Fishery Service and the National Museum of Natural History. This work led to, among other accomplishments, the discovery of a new species of dragonfish.

DETAILS Sutton's talk, "Deep-sea Denizens of the Mid Atlantic Ridge," will be held in the 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 29. All talks in the Ocean Science Lecture Series are free to the public and followed by a free reception. A cash bar is available before and after the 7:00 p.m. talk.Ê Please direct press inquiries 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.

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.