Around 100 new marine species discovered in New Zealand

“We’ve gone to lots of different habitats and discovered a whole range of new species, from fish to snails, to corals and sea cucumbers – really interesting species that are going to be new to science,” said Sadie Mills, co-director of the Ocean Census expedition in which several groups participated. During the expedition, conducted over three weeks in February, the scientists collected some 1,800 samples in the Bounty Trough, which extends for 800 kilometers off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said in a statement. Among the new species identified in the Bounty Trough – a Cretaceous rift feature at a depth ranging between 2,000 and 3,000 meters – are molluscs, three fish, a shrimp, a cephalopod and a new genera of coral, NIWA.said. Queensland Museum Network Taxonomist Michela Mitchell said the team initially thought that the coral was a seastar, a sea-anemone or zoanthid-like creature.

“We now think it could be a new species of octocoral, but also a new genus [wider grouping of species]. Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” she added. After completing the underwater expedition, scientists are now working to sort and describe the samples, as well as confirm the taxonomy of the new species.

“By the time all our specimens are examined, we will be north of 100 new species,” Ocean Census Science Director Professor Alex Rogers, who co-led the expedition, said. The scientists from NIWA and Te Papa in New Zealand collaborated with experts from the UK and Australia on the expedition, first by Ocean Census in the Southern Hemisphere. Ocean Census is a global scientific alliance created by The Nippon Foundation and UK ocean exploration foundation Nekton to accelerate the discovery and protection of marine life. EFE wat/pd