We present a major advancement in our ability to bring the physiological laboratory to the open ocean through the noninvasive use of a suction cup-attached tag equipped with surface electrodes. Our study provides heart rate data of a large, free-diving whale (blue whale) without prior capture or restraint. We recorded a wide range of heart rates from the tag, reaching only several beats per minute during deep foraging dives (bradycardia) and nearly 40 beats per minute at the sea surface (tachycardia) as the whale recovered from its oxygen debt.
Improved instrumentation for a fabulous giant organism.
Impressive plots showing observation results.
It can grow surprisingly deep. While looking for a reference I came across this New York Times article from 1984 on a coralline algae that was found growing at 270m. The paper about the discovery looks to have been published a couple of years later but hasn't been digitised yet.
As a complete aside, I was really struck but the repeated references in the NYT article to Dr Littler and "his wife", as if she was more of an assistant than a peer. It felt out of another age when women had to assist their husbands rather than pursue careers of their own.
I have heard of one subsea small gas field off the north-west shelf of Australia where they had pre-installed some pipework and a tie-in port to an export pipeline as the field was going to start producing a couple of years after the main field started production. The small field was in 200m of water, and the marine experts said that it would be fine, as coral doesn't grow below 100m as there's too little sunlight.
When they were preparing to bring the small field into service they sent down an ROV and found that the pre-installed pipe (cold, painted metal) was so encrusted with coral that they couldn't get the end caps off, and an endangered octopus had taken up residence in the tie-in port.
"My interest is in the future, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life there"
