Creature Spotlight: Ctenophore
Ctenophores are bioluminescent, gelatinous organisms - also known as comb jellies. They swim by row-like motions with their "combs", aligned in 8 rows around its body. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, [...]
Creature Spotlight: Sea Angel
Sea angels... Small, yet graceful. It has no shell, but is still a snail. Sea angels (Gymnosomata) are a group of pelagic, free-swimming molluscs, present all the way from polar regions under the sea [...]
The Bilbao metro turns into the mesopelagic zone.
Metro Bilbao is hosting a photographic exhibition about the most fascinating creatures that inhabit the mesopelagic zone, between 200 and 1,000 metres deep. The exhibition has been organized by AZTI scientific and technology [...]
Creature Spotlight: Siphonophore
Siphonophores may be some of the most unique and fascinating creatures residing in the mesopelagic zone. Instead of being a single organism, they are actually colonial, super-organisms consisting of several individuals that function together as [...]
Creature spotlight: Giant Ostracod
It can be hard to see what type of creature the giant ostracod (Gigantocypris) is at first glance. It looks like a large, organge ball, and is found all around the world - in [...]
Creature Spotlight: Humbolt squid
The Humbolt squid (Dosidicus gigas), also known as the jumbo flying squid, is a large predator native to the eastern pacific oceans mesopelagic zone. They can have a mantle length of up to 1.5m. [...]
News Archive
Mesopelagics – New gold rush or castle in the sky?
In this recently published article, Fjeld et al. performed a litterature review around the topic of mesopelagic resources. The authors put forward how there is little room for increased yields in current commercial fisheries [...]
SUMMER school course, May 22.-26. in Iceland
The SUMMER project is arranging a summer school course in Reykjavik, Iceland on the mesopelagic zone, hosted by the Marine And Freshwater Research Institute and the University of Iceland. The course will last 5 [...]
Creature Spotlight: Tuna
Tunas are some of the most commercially important, and valuable fish worldwide. They belong to the mackerel family, and there are currently 8 different recognized tuna species. Tunas are also one of the most [...]
Creature Spotlight: Lancetfish
Lancetfishes (family Alepisauridae) are one of the largest fishes inhabiting the mesopelagic zone. They are characterised by their incredibly high dorsal fin, slender long body, and long sharp teeth. Their teeth indicate that they [...]
Creature Spotlight: Elephant Seal
Elephant seals, also known as Sea elephants may not look like they frequent the deep ocean, but did you know they can dive deeper than 1000 meters in their search for food? An [...]
Creature Spotlight: Hatchetfish
Marine Hatchetfishes (Sternoptychinae) are a subfamily of small pelagic deep sea fish with a peculiar body shape. Their bodies are pressed in from each side, making them very flat and somewhat reminiscent of a [...]
SUMMER partners on board the RV METEOR to answer the mysteries of the mesopelagic zone
Researchers from AZTI (Spain), National Oceanography Centre (UK), University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and St Andrews University (UK) have joined the 185th campaign of the METEOR research vessel. During one month [...]
Video – “The Incredible Twilight Zone Creatures”
A small exhibition of the extraordinary and incredible creatures hidden in the mesopelagic zone! Stay tuned for more information regarding each creature featured in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VRj_43GGsw
Diversity of Mesopelagic Organisms
The oceanic mesopelagic or twilight zone (from 200 to 1000 m depth) is inhabited by a huge variety of organisms represented by several zoological groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. These mesopelagic species play an [...]
Annual SUMMER meeting
This year’s annual meeting was held in Barcelona at Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM) – CSIC from the 4th to the 6th of October. Partners from all over Europe attended the meeting, and [...]