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Surprising Swarm

May 12, 2016

During a dive in a manned submersible, researchers studying biodiversity at the Hannibal Bank Seamount came across an unexpected sight—thousands of red crabs in low-oxygen waters swarming like insects just above the seafloor. After capturing video and returning to the surface, the research team working from aboard the M/V Alucia utilized the SeaBED-class, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Jaguar to gather additional images (like the one above) and data about the density of the crab swarm. The focus of the April 2015 Panama expedition was to learn more about both the biological and physical processes that make Hannibal Seamount such a rich ecosystem. The team, which included physical oceanographers, biologists, software scientists, and robotics engineers, reported their findings in a recent paper published in the journal PeerJ. (Photo courtesy of Hanu Singh, Yogesh Girdhar, Jeff Anderson, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)