U.S. Postal Service Issues Deep Sea Creatures Stamps
October 2, 2000
Alien life in the deep sea will soon be affixed to first class mail across the nation as the U.S. Postal Service issues five 33-cent commemorative stamps of deep-sea creatures this month. Three of the stamps are based on photographs taken by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Biologist Laurence Madin. The stamps go on sale at post offices nationwide tomorrow. A ceremony is planned at the Woods Hole Post Office at 11 a.m. October 3 to mark the occasion.
The five creatures depicted on the stamps represent a fan-fin anglerfish, sea cucumber, fangtooth fish, amphipod and medusa. Madin provided the images of the sea cucumber, amphipod and medusa. The remaining two stamps, the fanfin anglerfish and the fangtooth, are based on images taken Bruce Robison of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Monterey, CA. The stamps will be official unveiled in a ceremony in Monterey today.
According to Madin, who has studied open ocean life for more than 30 years, these animals represent a world few humans have ever seen. “The sea cucumber can grow up to a foot in length; it feeds on the ocean bottom and then swims gracefully up into the water,” Madin says. “The amphipod is related to beach hoppers and sand fleas, but is much bigger at almost six inches long and is completely transparent. Both it and the medusa, a bioluminescent jellyfish that lives throughout the world, are found below 500 meters (1,600 feet) depth. They are only three of an unknown number of animals that live in the open ocean, a region that contains more than 90 percent of the liveable space on our planet. They are all amazing creatures.”
Designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland, the five stamps represent some of the most bizarre and unusual creatures that live in the mid-water region of the ocean. The region begins at about 600 feet, where sunlight becomes too dim for plant life, and extends to about 3,000 feet, where the last bit of light from above disappears. It is still largely unexplored, as is the deeper water beneath it. Madin and his colleagues have pioneered the use of new technologies to study this alien world, and on nearly every deep dive finds new species, many of which can not be recovered due to their large size and fragile nature.
Some live in colonies more than 150 feet long, making them the longest creatures on the planet. To survive in this boundless habitat, the animals have adapted to the darkness, weightlessness and scarce food with bizarre body shapes and unusual lifestyles that differ from creatures than inhabit areas closer to shore.
The U.S. Postal Service is printing 85 million of the deep-sea creature stamps, which can be bought as sets or individually. Other products featuring the stamp images are available at local post offices, including postcards sets, posters and address labels. October is National Stamp Collecting Month.
Deep Sea Amphipod: It's scientific name is Cystisoma neptuni. It's related to beach-hoppers and sand fleas, but part of a group of amphipods that are all planktonic and usually live in some kind of symbiosis with gelatinous animals. This one occurs mainly below about 500 m depth. We know little about its feeding habits, but it is likely to be a predator on soft-bodied animals. It's remarkable for the complete transparency of its body, with the exception of its stomach and its compound eyes. The eyes occupy the entire top of its head, and the retinas can be seen as a thin layer of red in the otherwise clear head. They look upward, which is where any sunlight would be coming from. Cystisoma is fairly large for an amphipod, up to about 6" in length. The adults appear to carry their babies around on their bodies until the babies are old enough to swim. The one in the stamp picture was caught with a submersible and returned alive to the surface, but these have never been kept alive for long. (Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Sea Cucumber: It's scientific name is Enypniastes eximia, and it can be up to a foot in length. Almost all sea cucumbers (which are in Echinodermata, the same phylum as starfish and sea urchins) are bottom dwellers which lie on or burrow into the sediments and eat mud or sand to get the attached organic material. Enypniastes is one of a small group of swimming sea cucumbers. It also feeds on bottom sediment, which it stuffs into its mouth with the group of tube feet surrounding the mouth. However it is also capable of swimming up above the bottom, by undulation of the cape-like structure around the top of the animal. It is a graceful, if slow, swimmer, but can be found several hundred feet above the bottom. Through the transparent body wall, one can see the intestine and other internal organs. Enypniastes has luminous organs on its skin, which may deter predators. (Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)