One of the main interest in the study of deep-sea animals is that they have an extensive third dimension through which they can readily move. Developments in physical techniques have helped greatly, both in unravelling the vertical relationships of such animals and in understanding their physiology; examples are luminescence and vi ion. Work on specialized tissues in marine creatures living in shallow water has proved very rewarding and this encourages us to believe that research on deep-sea forms will also yield results of general importance.
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The above text is based on the author's Presidential Address to the Zoological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science at Bath University; it was delivered in September 1978.
