First access to live alvinellas

Abstract

The deep-sea vent worm Alvinella pompejana is a biological enigma, regarding the adaptative features that allow it to prosper in the harsh environment of hydrothermal chimney walls (East Pacific Rise). Moreover, attempts to maintain this invertebrate alive following recovery (2600 m depth) have so far failed, thus forbidding in vivo laboratory studies. For the first time, it is shown that most of the specimens reach the surface alive, as witnessed by video monitoring of these animals after native pressure conditions have been restored. Furthermore, some individuals may show active behaviour at least 20 h after recovery, under controlled temperature and oxygen level conditions. These promising results open up a new field of investigation, and call for a major breakthrough towards our understanding of A. pompejana's biology, in the near future.

Keywords:

• Alvinella
• Survival
• IPOCAMP
• Deep sea
• Biology

Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the Captain and crew of R/ V Atalante and Victor 6000. We are grateful to G. Frebourg, P. Saby, the CTPI and PAVE (UPMC) for technical assistance. We also aknowledge support from the EC VENTOX program.