WHAT DEEP SEA CREATURE IS PINK AND CAN LIVE 70 YEARS?

MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM : SEA PIGS 

Excerpt:  Tiptoeing over the deep seafloor, a sea pig searches for a meal.  The tentacles around its mouth probe the mud for treats - bits of dead animals poop and mucus. ... The sea pig spends its days snuffling through the muddy sediments on the seafloor, eating bits of dead algae and animals that have fallen from the surface  When something big, like a whale fall, sinks to the seafloor, huge herds of sea pigs gather nearby to feast on the rich organic sediments from the decaying carcass.

KELP FORESTS : PARTNERSHIP FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES OF COASTAL OCEANS (PISCO) FOUR CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITIES INVOLVED IN LONG TERM RESEARCH

 PISCO; KELP FORESTS

Excerpts: Much of the extraordinary production of kelp falls to the ocean floor, like leaf litter in terrestrial forests.  There, it either remains to support productive and species rich detritus-based forest food webs, or is exported by currents to adjacent ecosystems where it fuels food webs on sandy beaches, deep rocky reefs or submarine canyons.  Among the many species that inhabit kelp forests are a wide variety of economically important species such as sea urchins, abalone, lobster, sea cucumbers, rockfishes and other finishes, as well as s endangered species including abalone and southern sea otters.  The kept itself is harvested to feed abalone in aquaculture facilities and for use in a number of human products.  The forests also support economically important eco-tourism, including kayaking, bird and marine mammal watching and scuba diving.

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PISCO was established in 1999  by scientists from four core campuses,  Oregon State University, Stanford University Hopkins Marine Station, University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Clarify Santa Barbara.

GREAT BARRIER REEF SEA CUCUMBERS