Katherine Balls/Ocean Census/FIRE
Scientists spotted an elusive deep-sea squid that may be new to science during a February Ocean Census expedition to the Bounty Trough, off the coast of New Zealand.
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news of fascinating discoveries, scientific breakthroughs and more.
CNN
—
Marine researchers on a mission to record the life hidden in the world’s oceans have reported discovering around 100 potential new species – including a mysterious star-like creature.
The expedition team focused their investigation on the 500-mile (800-kilometer) long Bounty Trough, a little-explored part of the ocean off the coast of New Zealand, east of the South Island. The scientists’ three-week trip aboard the research vessel Tangaroa, which belongs to the country’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, took place in February.
Sadie Mills/Ocean Census/NIWA
Two mystery specimens could be a new species of octocorals or another new group altogether, according to Dr Michela Mitchell, a taxonomist at the Queensland Museum Network.
The team collected almost 1,800 samples from depths of up to 3 miles (4,800 meters), discovering species of fish, squid, molluscs and coral that they say are new to science.
“You have this large area off the east coast of New Zealand where there are absolutely few data points. We don’t know anything about it,” said Dr. Daniel Moore, scientific manager of the Ocean Census expedition, a new alliance launched in April 2023 that aims to identify 100,000 unknown species over the next 10 years. “It was real research, very exciting.”
Over the next three weeks, a team of scientists will sort and describe the deep-sea finds to confirm whether they are newly discovered species.
The team’s scientists were puzzled by a find that they initially thought was a type of starfish or sea anemone.
“It’s still a mystery. We can’t even describe it to the family. We don’t know where it is in the tree (of life) yet, so that will be interesting,” Moore said.
Rebecca Parse/Ocean Census/NIWA
Two eels that may be new to science were caught in a fish trap set 1.7 miles (2,700 meters) below the ocean’s surface in the Bounty Trough.
Dr Michaela Mitchell, a taxonomist at the Queensland Museum Network, said in a statement released by Ocean Census that it could be a type of deep-sea coral called an octocoral.
“Even more exciting is that it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If so, this is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” she said in the statement.
Rebecca Parse/Ocean Census/NIWA
Researchers search and sort a sample collected from the ocean floor aboard the research vessel Tangaroa.
Moore said he was surprised that the team discovered a new species of fish, known as an eel, that was “immediately recognized as different from the others.”
“Finding new vertebrates is rare. There are hundreds of thousands of invertebrates in the sea that we still don’t know. Vertebrates, we like to think we know what’s out there, but the reality is we just don’t,” he said.
Rebecca Parse/Ocean Census/NIWA
The researchers tentatively assigned a potential new genus of black coral to the family Stylopathidae.
To take the samples, the ship pulls three different types of sleds depending on the terrain. These included a traditional beam trawl that towed a net to collect samples, a heavy-duty underwater sled for rocky surfaces and another device that sampled the water just above the seabed, as well as a towed underwater camera.
Huge gaps remain in scientific knowledge of the ocean depths. Of the 2.2 million species believed to exist in Earth’s oceans, only 240,000 have been described by scientists, according to the Ocean Census.
