Evening star., 1951-01-19
Pacific Ocean Is GirdIed
By Brood Belt of Life
Expedition Reports Finding
Abundance of Seq Creatures
By Thomos R. Henry

oy InomoS K. Henry
A broad belt of life girdles the Pacific
at about 10-north latitude.
Within the waters of this area, espe.
cially at night. there Is a superabun-
dance Of sea creatures of all sorts from
minute luminescent fish to large squid.
This is one of the findings just re-
ported to the Office Of Naval Research
here by biologists of the mid-Paciic
expedition, Navy-sponsored enterprise
carried out primarily by the Scripps
Institute of Oceanography. es9ea
The scientists were interested prima-
rily in the curious sound-ref1ecting lay
ers in the ocean, discovered during the
war when 1t was found that in most
of the earth's waters false echoes were
being received which led to errors in
calculating depths. It was found also
that the depths from which these echoes
were received varied notably in day
light and darkness. With sunset they
tended to rise toward the surface.
Mystery Is Unsolved.
The mystery remains essentially un-
solved. 1t is due undoubtedly to great
concentrations Of living things in the
sea depths. One theory Is that the
echoes are due to great schools of giant
squids or eels, which remain deeply
submerged most of the time. Another
is that they are due to enormous con-
centrations Of tiny shrimp-like creatures,
similar to the "krill" which color great
areas Of open water in the Antarctic
blood-red. Others have attributed the
echoes to schools of fish. Whatever the
organisms may be, they apparently are
quite sensitive to light. seeking abysmal
depths when the sun shines and ap-
preaching closer to the surface when
darkness approaches or when 1t rains.
Scientists of the mid-Pacific expedi-
ton found the phenomenon much more
complicated than 1t has been considered
before. There often were five or six re-
f1ecting layers, or false bottoms" Sound
waves Of different frequencies were sent
into the water and the character Of
the echoes studied.
Schools Of Squid.
The echo sounder showed that during
the daytime there were many "blobs'
just below the surface, which might be
attributed either to squid or schools of
fish. At night, when the ship was hove
to, there often were as many as 1000
squid, up to 18 inches long, which came
from the depths and formed a
sort of Gordon around the craft. They
apparently were attracted by schools
of the lumineScent fish known as lantern
fish, which in turn were attracted by
lantern hung overheard. The squid
formed sort of barrier patrol so that
little fish never could get near the light,
which seemed to have an irresistible at
traction for them. They were eaten as
fast as they got within 30 feet of the
ship. Among the squid were many
dolphins-large fish, not small whales.
The latter apparently did not fare well
Their stomachs were found nearly
empty while the squid were filed with
fish remains.
With specially constructed net many
of the deep-sea fish were brought to the
surface. Some hauls would bring up a
hundred or more of the strange deep
sea denizens, the hatchet fish, with
rows of lights, along their sides like the
portfolios of ship.
These observations brought to light
the strange nighttime 10 degree north
latitude belt of life which remains es-
sentially unexplainable. %
They also showed that the upper
layers of the ocean down to about 400
fathoms TEEN with many kinds Of or
ganisms, some of which may be un-
known to science.
Attempts to recover some Of them
were made with a net Is feet wide and
SO feet long. This brought up mostly
small fish. The largest was an eel
about three feet long. For the larger
creatures, it is believed. a net three
times this size will be necessary.