Scientists Come Face To Face With Rare Deep-water Creatures Off Nova Scotia

An endangered species of whale that can dive as deep as a kilometre to feed is helping scientists determine how to protect an unusual marine ecosystem off Canada's East Coast. Observations of northern bottlenose whales in the Sable Gully - the largest submarine canyon in eastern North America - are proving to be an effective way to determine the health of the area, federal Fisheries Department scientists told a news conference Monday. "If the whales are doing well, we can probably assume that the underlying ecosystem is still fairly robust and supportive," said Paul Mcnab, who manages the marine protected area about 200 kilometres southeast of Halifax. "Whales become a fairly easy to study indicator because you can go out there on the surface and take photographs, you can count whales, you can look at whether they are still reproducing." A group of marine scientists recently completed a two-week trip to the gully to study deep-water animal life, some of which makes up the diet of the northern bottlenose. The work complemented an earlier study, carried out in July, in which scientists used a submersible to probe the depths off Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. The small, remotely controlled sub was used to capture pictures of rare corals and fish that inhabit the dark, craggy floor of the gully...