Good morning! This is Mike Ford from the Silver Spring Exploration Command Center, here at the NOAA headquarters.
Today, we're conducting a midwater exploration
striving to collect information about the types of animals that live in the midwater of the ocean in this particular location.
The midwater of the ocean is a region of the water column
from about 200 meters deep all the way down to the seafloor.
The midwater of the ocean is perhaps the largest biome on the planet.
The largest biome that's habitable by life.
Numerous organisms live here and they're highly influential to how the ocean works
and interact with surface biology for fisheries and protected species and certainly interact with the bottom here.
I think this chimera counts as a water column animal, it's swimming in the water column.
(laughing) That counts!