Cold seep:
it may sound like what happens when your socks get wet on a winter walk but it is, in fact, a phenomenon that could be responsible for nurturing some rare life forms in Scotland's waters.
Four new sea creatures, including a remarkable 4ins sea snail, have been discovered living in the primeval soup on the sea bed near Rockall, and they may have been nourished by a cold seep, where hydrocarbons emerge from the earth's crust into a pool.
They join a long list of exotic creatures inhabiting Scottish waters, including leatherback turtles, tall sea pens (ghostly columns that stand as tall as a person) and ocean quahogs, bivalves that are among the world's longest lived animals at 400 years.
The danger with what man cannot see is that he thinks it does not matter, but the ocean hides a precious and finely balanced ecosystem. Not only do these discoveries remind us of the importance of keeping the area free of fishing and oil exploration, they show that, even now, humans do not fully understand the riches in the subsea environment. The precautionary principle should apply to marine management, to protect ecological treasures known and yet to be discovered.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article