Organisms living in the depths of Barkley Canyon have evolved to be able to persist in areas with high pressure, no light, and low nutrients/food availability. The Barkley Canyon instruments span a diversity of habitats, each of which is associated with its own specialized biological community. Most of the areas within Barkley Canon are characterised by a soft, finely sedimented seafloor. Video observations suggest that animal densities are higher at the shallower sites compared with the deeper sites, although most species are present at all sites. A number of fish including sablefish, thornyheads, rockfish, flatfish, sharks, skates, hagfish and eelpouts have been observed throughout Barkley Canyon. The area is rich with invertebrates as well including molluscs (bivalves, octopus, snails), echinoderms (sea stars, brittle stars, sea cucumbers, and urchins) as well as arthropods (crabs and shrimp). Cnidarians are seen both on the seafloor (anemones, sea pens, and corals) as well as floating in the water column (jellyfish) along with other organisms such as salps, ctenophores, and tunicates.Juniper et al, 2013
