• Question: why do they use there eyes less?

    Asked by tz10 to Abyssal Grenadier on 7 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Abyssal Grenadier

      Abyssal Grenadier answered on 7 Nov 2017:


      Hi tz10, great question!

      The deep sea is a very difficult environment to live in for a variety of reasons – not a lot of food, lots of predators, and the crushing weight of all the water above these animals. But one of the main problems with living in the deep sea is that below 200m of water there is very little natural sunlight getting that deep and after about 1000m there is no natural light at all! The abyssal grenadier lives all the way down to 4000/5000m where there is no natural light so it is hard for them to see anything. (Although some other deep sea animals produce their own light using bioluminescence!) Because it’s very dark the abyssal grenadier relies more heavily on its sense of smell to detect food.

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