They all work in a yellow submarine

The tiny submarine was 500 feet below the surface of Tenakee Inlet when it hit the big whale, lying dead on the ocean floor.

Juneau marine ecologist Jim Taggart was peering out the porthole at the discovery, known as a whalefall. One of only 12 found by scientists in recent memory, the find last month 50 miles southwest of Juneau offered a wealth of information with some surprising implications.

``We literally bumped right into the whale,'' said Taggart.

The collision raised a huge cloud of undersea organisms in the dark, near-freezing waters at the bottom of the inlet. The lights of the 16-foot sub revealed a swarm of walleyed pollock drawn to the excitement. As the sub circled the carcass, Taggart was able to piece together a picture of the sunken whale.

Taggart was part of a team of scientists studying the impact that sea otters are having on Dungeness crabs in Southeast waters. Lead by Tom Shirley, fisheries professor at the University of Alaska, the team used the two-person Delta submarine as part of the ongoing research project. The discovery of the whalefall proved to be a bonus.

The Delta descends

``I talked to the world's leading authority in Hawaii on this,'' said Shirley. ``He's been sinking dead whales in order to study them, and he's real excited about this find.''

The authority is oceanographer Craig Smith at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. He said the Alaska find is an exciting opportunity to study a whale found in relatively shallow water, and compare it to those he's studied elsewhere at depths between 3,000 and 12,000 feet.

``Another angle I found exciting is a biotechnology spinoff,'' Smith said. ``We've been collaborating with a biotechnology firm in San Diego, studying enzymes that are made by the bacteria living on the skeleton and blubber, that they use to break down the proteins and oils.''

Smith said these enzymes function in cold water at temperatures just above freezing.

``They're looking at marketing these as detergent additives, so that detergents can be more efficient in cold water,'' said Smith, adding that it's a good reminder that the applied benefits of basic research aren't always apparent at first.

Shirley said Smith's technology may have applications for oil spill cleanup work as well.

Smith said whale skeletons support an incredibly diverse assemblage of species. One whale supports 178 species in an area less than a square meter, which rivals coral reefs or rain forests for biodiversity.

``That's not what we expected to find at all,'' Smith said. ``We've also found quite a few species that are new to science, including some that don't seem to live anywhere else.''

Scientists have found that scavengers are able to strip the soft tissue off sunken whales in deep waters much faster than ever thought. When the soft tissue is gone, other types of organisms move in with other types of metabolisms, sulfide-loving creatures like those that live near deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

``The bones are as much as 60 percent oil by weight, and they continue to support these specialized communities for years,'' said Smith. ``The vent systems are separated by thousands of kilometers, and whalefalls may serve as dispersal stepping stones, and may also be stepping stones in an evolutionary sense.''

Smith hopes to come to Alaska next year and visit the sunken carcass, which Shirley guesses is a humpback whale. Graduate students are already e-mailing Shirley, asking to participate in the research.

This was the fifth time Shirley and his associates have worked with the Delta submarine. Shirley was on the bottom of Taku Inlet south of Juneau when the area was being considered as a tailings disposal site for the Alaska Juneau gold mine several years ago. He also studied the impact of tons of sunken bark and wood waste at log transfer sites in Southeast.

Taggart, who serves as the Glacier Bay Field Station leader for the Alaska Biological Science Center for the U.S. Geological Survey, has participated on several projects, along with a host of fisheries graduate students. Taggart said he's seen some amazing sights under the surface of Southeast Alaska waters.

Taggart has found himself surrounded by thousands of pollock, drawn to the sub by the lights like moths to a flame, repeatedly bumping the sides of the craft. He's seen bioluminescent creatures, huge halibut, forests of sea whips and sea pens, and fields of basket sea stars. He described large areas of the sea floor buried by a thick, living layer of thousands of egg-bearing female crabs.

``We've seen all kinds of strange critters, sponges and snails you can't find in any of the books,'' he said. ``It's a different world down there, there's no question about it.''