These densely grouped mussels, crabs and tubeworms were living around a hot vent on one of the volcanic seamounts in the Kermadec chain – a line of volcanic seamounts extending from the Bay of Plenty to Tonga.

The photograph was taken during a dive by the submersible Pisces V during April 2005 as part of a joint venture expedition by GNS Science and NOAA-PMEL (the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.)