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An interesting article, but the fish and shrimp were swimming in a supposedly isolated wedge of seawater, not in fresh water (i.e. melt water from the glacier). While the massive ice sheet is grounded on the rocky bottom, the 'wedge' apparently is not hermetically sealed off. It is hard to see how anyone could have ruled out the existence of direct small seawater channels from the open ocean running under it, through to the newly visualized 'wedge'. The few animals found there could be open ocean species that had gained access through such channels, perhaps by accident or even for shelter. Blind translucent fish are well known in the deep ocean below the level where significant light penetrates, as are species with blood antifreeze.
The fact that such an obvious explanation is not excluded or even mentioned in the article (when the authors must have thought of it) raises suspicions that this is a media-savvy advertizing exercise for an expensive study, to draw attention to unexpected new findings but which in reality might have a simpler and much more mundane explanation. Scientists are not immune from sins of self-promotion.
Steve (Hfx)
________________________________________
From: naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca [naturens-owner@chebucto.ns.ca] on behalf of Dusan Soudek [soudekd@ns.sympatico.ca]
Sent: Friday, January 23, 2015 12:29 PM
To: Nature Ns
Subject: [NatureNS] "Discovery of Fish Beneath Antarctica" (from Scientific American)
This item has nothing to do with nature Nova Scotia, but it intrigued me following the discussion on NatureNS of the recent mackerel dieoff in Bras d'Or Lake, allegedly due to hypothermia. The newly discovered Antarctic fish live in a 10 m sliver of seawater below the Ross Ice Shelf, in permanent darkness under some 740 m of ice and 850 km from the open ocean...
Dusan Soudek
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-fish-live-beneath-antarctica1/?WT.mc_id=SA_WR_20150121
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