High Seas Biology

If you asked an elementary school student to draw an oceanscape, they would likely draw a vibrant coral reef ecosystem, full of colorful corals and shiny fishes. Although many coral reef ecosystems are losing this color  and most reef ecosystems do not actually look like the reef structures in aquaria, coastal seas are typically characterized by this luscious vibe. On the contrary, the open ocean is more monotone and so are the organisms within it. Reef vs. Pelagic Ocean. Almost all animals that live in the open ocean have a dark dorsal (top) side and light ventral (bottom) side, a characteristic called countershading . Consider the below image of an Atlantic bluefin tuna ( Thunnus thynnus ). The dorsal side is a dark blue and the ventral side is white. The main purpose of this is to avoid predation in a 3-dimensional environment (many pelagic organisms in lakes have this as well). Predators hunting from below the tuna will have to look up at a light backdrop where the white ven...

Hello and welcome to " High Seas Biology ", a blog about the numerous wonders of the open ocean. My name is Matt Woodstock and I am currently a PhD Candidate at Florida International University in the Fisheries and Ecosystem Assessment Lab . I study the ecology of open-ocean systems with a particular focus on the food web interactions between deep-sea organisms and federally protected species (ex. tunas, billfishes, mammals, seabirds, sea turtles). The inspiration to begin this blog originates from an article by famed deep-sea biologist Alan Jamieson and others ( 2020 ), where the authors discuss the challenges associated with teaching deep-sea biology and convincing people to care about conserving an ecosystem that is " out of sight, out of mind ". Many have likely seen the episode of " Our Planet " entitled " The High Seas ", which was narrated by Sir David Attenborough, but 49 minutes of airtime does not do this region justice. My overarching...