(Describer) Streams of light collide to create a globe filled with water. Title: Science Nation.

(Describer) In a lab aquarium...

(male narrator) These tiny, red shrimp might be perfect pets. They can live in a tank, and with some sunshine, you never need to feed them or change their water.

(male) Economically, they are being sold as aquarium pets.

(Describer) Scott Santos:

But culturally, these were organisms that were used by the native peoples either in fishing practices or in stories.

(narrator) Those would be Hawaiian stories, where these reddish-colored crustaceans are the stuff of legend. According to folklore, they showed up en masse after a jealous Maui prince murdered his young wife.

(Santos) The waters reddened with these tiny shrimp known as opae ula.

(Describer) Two are shown against golden coral.

(man) We're interested to see what they're actually grazing on.

(narrator) With support from the National Science Foundation, molecular biologist Scott Santos and his team at Auburn University are studying these little shrimp, investigating how they thrive in the harsh, brackish pools they call home.

(Santos) Their habitats, which are known as anchialine environments, occur very close to the shoreline-- this ecosystem that shares a connection to the ocean, as well as the groundwater system. They are unique worldwide, in the sense that Hawaii has a majority of them. There's about 1,000 known worldwide, 600 of which are in the Hawaiian islands.

(narrator) Santos says these inland lava depressions are quickly disappearing along with the unique inhabitants that live there.

(Santos) They're starting to vanish very quickly. And unfortunately, shoreline development is growing uncontrollably in Hawaii. You're losing lots of habitat.

(narrator) Waters there undergo wide temperature swings, salinity, and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

(Santos) They are considered extreme environments, and there's been a lot of interest in looking at things like microbes from extreme environments because they might hold potential applied value to human welfare.

(narrator) Santos says it's a race against time to identify and study the organisms that manage to survive in this environment before they're gone, including the legendary red shrimp.

(Describer) The globe turns.

For Science Nation, I'm Miles O'Brien.