This summer, scientists from the Ocean Census Science Network, a global consortium dedicated to preserving marine life, collaborated with the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI), a nonprofit foundation specializing in marine research, to explore the depths of the Salas y Gomèz and Nazca Ridges off the coast of Chile. Their underwater adventure yielded the discovery of twenty potential new species, the researchers write in a statement from the Schimdt Ocean Institute.
For 28 days, scientists explored 10 seamounts in the Southeast Pacific. Deep in the abyss, they sent robotic explorers that mapped vast gardens of sponges, ancient corals, mollusks and other fish. In one of the mountains, which is the size of three tennis courts, they also discovered “a pristine coral garden of deep-sea corals that are home to a multitude of organisms such as rockfish, brittle stars and king crabs,” the statement said.
According to scientists, these aquatic species are new and have never been mapped or seen by humans before: “The seamounts of the Southeast Pacific are home to remarkable biological diversity, with species not found anywhere else to date,” said Professor Alex David Rogers, scientific director of Ocean Census.
This abyssal exploration has (…)
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