A group from Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium is responsible for the study. They filmed it to see how these lowland creatures (gators) would impact the deep-water ecosystems. I've always wondered what is down there. I'm sure this is just a SMALL portion.
Here is what they hoped to find out. Alligators were dropped to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico in February 2019 for the first-ever experiment on what eats reptiles in the world’s deep oceans. This research will help us learn more about:
1. deep-sea food webs
2. ancient food webs (because maybe some species eating the gators ate now-extinct reptiles like mososaurs)
3. how materials created on land sustain and impact ocean food webs