Sub finds predatory worms, floating jelly creatures beneath the Arctic ice

Monday, December 22, 2014, 2:11 PM - For such a desolate landscape, the Arctic is teeming with life. Especially beneath the waves.

We're getting great new views of it now, thanks to Nereid Under Ice, a remote operated submarine that started work in the region last year.

Operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in the U.S., its first dive this past summer revealed a treasure trove of life beneath the frozen waves - including predatory crawlers called arrow worms, jellyfish, floating transparent gelatinous creatures known as larvaceans, and more.

In fact, researchers were surprised at just how much biological activity they found under there, a key to understanding the Arctic food chain, known mostly to the public by upper-level predators like polar bears and seals.

Oddly, this article in Science Magazine noted the sub didn't find any evidence of fish, a crucial part of the marine food chain.

Nevertheless, the findings are still very significant, and the chief scientist for the summer's expedition says peeking under the ice was the best way available.

"One of the big needs for better understanding the fate of polar life in a warming Arctic is to be able to look for it under the melting ice," Antje Boetius from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research said in this summary of the findings. "There are no other adequate methods available to science at this time: Satellites cannot see through ice, and research vessels stir up the under-ice environment."

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