This investigation actually emerged from data that these researchers and John Francis, of the National Geographic Society research and exploration committee, collected using mini-marine mammal cams over the course of three Antarctic summers in the late 1990s. The small packs—which feature a black-and-white video camera and data logger—are usually attached via a wet-suit-like belt and produce illumination through an array of near-infrared light emitting diodes (LEDs). (Infrared light is invisible to seals and fish, the researchers believe, and therefore does not interfere with normal behavior.)
Lightweight and unobtrusive, the camera/data logger devices allow the researchers to videotape the mammal's movements and interactions with other species, taking the scientists to go on virtual journeys into oceanic worlds. Those virtual journeys returned a host of new data about those species' hunting habits, behavior, and deep-diving physiology.2,3
The revelations about the silverfish and toothfish species represent important new information, says Fuiman, especially considering ...
