Dear Muriel,
Thanks for your email message. Getting specimens back to the surface without breaking or killing them is often a very difficult thing to do and it's easier to do with some specimens than others. The organisms are usually either carefully picked up with Alvin's manipulator arm or with a
net held by the arm which we use to scoop things up. We then put them in a special box on the front of the sub which keeps them cold until we get to the surface. Tubeworms, mussels, clams and crabs usually survive this journey very well, but animals like fish and octopuses don't. On many of
our cruises, the scientists have special "pressure chambers" into which they quickly put the animals so that they can keep them alive for a pretty long period of time to study them. They have actually kept the crabs alive for over a year.