Race is on to discover mysteries of the deep

[Mr T.]

Race is on to discover mysteries of the deep
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 23/11/2004)

While researchers use submarines, seafloor skimming sledges and huge ships to find new marine species, an entirely new kind of habitat has been discovered by scuba divers close to shore.

The Alaskan Rhodoliths, smooth and pink marine algae balls that resemble coral, mark another discovery by scientists working on an international effort to document all marine life.

Lurking in the Rhodoliths, could be some of the 5,000 fish species that scientists estimate are still to be discovered, said Dr Ron O'Dor, the chief scientist of the first Census of Marine Life.

The census is a huge multi-million pound effort to catalogue and map marine species involving hundreds of scientists in more than 70 countries.

Rhodolith beds based on football sized clumps have been found in the Arctic near Greenland and in waters off British Columbia, Canada. Recently, a dwarf variety was found in Alaskan waters, marking a new type of habitat in that region.

"Even right off shore, there is all kinds of stuff we don't even know about," said Dr O'Dor. Some have suggested that the algae balls need special measures to study, such as tags to see how far they wander, if scientists are to realise their full significance.

"This mobile environment really surprised me," said Dr O'Dor. "It means that plants invented the wheel."

The balls drift like tiny tumbleweeds under the influence of waves and currents until they grow heavy enough to settle and form brightly coloured beds. Rhodoliths provide a habitat for a wide variety of species, from clams and scallops to corals and spawning grounds for fish.

Only a tenth of a per cent of the ocean has been sampled, a fraction that falls to a thousandth of a per cent for the deep sea.

Even in Europe and the best studied seas, the discovery of new marine species shows no end in sight, according to Dr O'Dor. Researchers say such rates are even higher in southern and Pacific oceans where research has been less intensive.

About 106 new species of marine fish have been added to the database this year, bringing the total of marine fish species to 15,482. Census experts expect the final count of fish species to total roughly 20,000.

The census database has now assembled more than 5.2 million new and previously existing records mapping the distribution of 38,000 marine species, an exponential increase from 1.1 million records and 25,000 species at this time last year. Microbes, the smallest organisms, form more than 90 per cent of biomass in the ocean.

A map has been produced from the 5.2 million records. Red dots represent the locations of marine species found in, on and above the seabed, from microscopic plankton to whales, recorded over the past few hundred years. Large patches of blue show where no samples at any depth have been recorded.

A race is on to document many sea creatures before they are wiped out. Some 90 per cent of large fish have disappeared in the past half century, according to research, which suggests that the bigger fish - large tuna, sharks, swordfish and even cod - may soon be merely memories. And there are particular concerns that hot spots of marine diversity, around seamounts, will be lost before they are studied in depth.

Progress with the census will be announced at a meeting of experts in Hamburg, Germany, next week, along with news of a network of nine regional organisations being formed to advance the world's "information seaway".

Though still under construction, the £5 million Ocean Biographic Information System database already shows for the first time that near-surface records account for 95 per cent of all existing observations of ocean life; less than 0.1 per cent are from the bottom half of the water column.

A specimen collected below 6,000ft is about 50 times more likely to be new to science than one found at 50 metres, because the depths have been relatively poorly sampled, said Dr O'Dor.

Researchers have used a sledge carrying a fine net to collect specimens down to 6,000 metres below the surface in Africa's Angola Basin, and explored the deep Southern Ocean, one of the least-known marine areas. In the mid-Atlantic ridge, scientists have found "deep doughnuts of life" measuring about 10,000 yards across, said Dr Frederick Grassle, of Rutgers University, chairman of the Census International Steering Committee.

"We have barely skimmed the surface."


Scientists Discover New Marine Habitat In Alaska - Science Daily

Census of Marine Life

[Mr T.]

Billion dollar hunt for 2m species under the sea
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 24/10/2003)

The total number of species in the world's oceans could be more than two million, according to scientists working on a billion-dollar international effort to document all marine life.


sunflower sea stars [Pycnopodia helianthoides]

The first phase of the Census of Marine Life has recorded 15,304 species of fish and roughly 210,000 marine species of all types. But the total number could be up to 10 times bigger.

Leading scientists from the census met at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington yesterday to discuss the 10-year effort to create a comprehensive portrait of ocean life. It names about 160 new fish species each year.

They want to set the priorities for the next seven years of research, for example electronic tags tracking species by satellite, robot submarines filming them, and "landers" monitoring them from the ocean floor.

On a practical level, the census aims to identify threatened species and important breeding areas, and to help fisheries authorities to manage the sea's resources.

"This is the start of the first great voyage of discovery of the 21st century," said Prof Frederick Grassle of Rutgers University, chairman of the census scientific committee. "More importantly, it begins the first systematic global effort to measure our oceans' vital signs, and guide what must be done to reverse their decline."

The oceans are mostly unexplored and little is known about their life, said Dr Ronald O'Dor, the census's chief scientist. "We reckon only a tenth of a per cent of the ocean has been sampled."

[Mr T.]

Secrets of the deep
By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 24/10/2003)

Discoveries during the first three years of the Census of Marine Life include:

Around 10 miles off the Florida Keys scientists found a new species of sponge - bright red and nicknamed the "rasta sponge". Its chemical compounds may help to treat cancers.

Deep-sea researchers exploring the abyssal sediments off Angola found more species per area than in any other known aquatic environment on Earth.

About 80 per cent of the collected species were new to science (more than 500 suspected new species have been recognised in samples so far, with a final total of 1,000 expected).

Underwater video technologies have revealed rich three-dimensional habitats formed by corals and sponges, replacing general beliefs that the deep sea was mostly mud.

Scientists yesterday premiered video footage of life in the mid Atlantic at the unprecedented depth of 2.7 miles. The images were captured in June by Census scientists in the MAR-ECO Project, the first to explore the depths of the "Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone" in the North Atlantic.

Scientists suspect that fish indigenous to one side of the Atlantic may be using extinct undersea volcanoes as stepping stones to migrate to the other side.

In just three cubic meters of a coral reef off New Caledonia in the South Pacific, some 130,000 molluscs were found belonging to 3,000 species.

Micro organisms in the oceans make up for their minute size by their numbers. The 1,030 types of microbe in the ocean comprise more than 90 per cent of the mass of all living things in the oceans. Half of Earth's oxygen is created by photosynthesis in these microbes.

Every species of large wild fish has been caught so extensively over the past 50 years that 90 per cent of each type have disappeared.

Census research suggests that by the year 1600 the level of fishing in Northern Europe was already having a huge impact. The herring catch had reached 100,000 tons per year and quintupled well before 1900; in the 1960s and 1970s the fishery was closed altogether.

Following measures to restore the herring fishery, the annual catch is now 307,000 tons.

[John Gulliver]

Quote bo.1: Only a tenth of a per cent of the ocean has been sampled, a fraction that falls to a thousandth of a per cent for the deep sea.

Quote no.2: In just three cubic meters of a coral reef off New Caledonia in the South Pacific, some 130,000 molluscs were found belonging to 3,000 species.
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Makes you feel quite humble, doesn't it?

[Mr T.]

Originally Posted by John Gulliver

Quote bo.1: Only a tenth of a per cent of the ocean has been sampled, a fraction that falls to a thousandth of a per cent for the deep sea.

Quote no.2: In just three cubic meters of a coral reef off New Caledonia in the South Pacific, some 130,000 molluscs were found belonging to 3,000 species.
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Makes you feel quite humble, doesn't it?

Yes mate - and rightly so! Nice to know that there is still some mystery in our lives