Les Watling

01 October 2000

“The deep sea is an ancient environment, essentially unchanged for more than 20 million years. The animals that live in the deep represent life as it was on earth a very long time ago; they are a living library of life as it once was. Deep-sea species in many cases embody the phrase “life in the slow lane,” growing slowly, living long, and reproducing late. For me, it is the possibility to see things that are otherwise unknown, to see a world where change takes millennia, and to study animals that are so completely different from those in shallow water that is so compelling.”