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A new species of Marginaster seastar.
Hundreds of new marine species and previously uncharted undersea mountains
and canyons have been discovered in the depths of the Southern Ocean,
Australian scientists said Wednesday. (Xinhua/AFP Photo)
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BEIJING, Oct. 10 -- Hundreds of new marine species
and previously uncharted undersea mountains and canyons have been discovered in
the depths of the Southern Ocean, Australian scientists said Wednesday.
A total of 274 species of fish, ancient corals,
molluscs, crustaceans and sponges new to science were found in icy waters up to
3,000 metres (9,800 feet) deep among extinct volcanoes, they said.
The scientists mapped undersea mountains up to 500
metres high and canyons larger than the Grand Canyon for the first time, the
government's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) said.
The finds were made in marine reserves 100 nautical
miles south of the Australian island of Tasmania during two CSIRO voyages in
November 2006 and April 2007 using new sonar and video technology as well as
seafloor sampling.
Announcing the discoveries in the Tasmanian capital
Hobart, CSIRO scientist Kate Wilson said more was known about the surface of
Mars than the depths of the world's oceans.
"In Australian waters, for example, more than 40
percent of the creatures brought to the surface by our scientists on a voyage of
discovery have never been seen before," she said.
A total of 123 underwater mountains were found, said
CSIRO specialist Nic Bax, noting they were home to thousands of deep-sea
animals.
"They're really what we call the rainforests of the
deep, they provide an area where we get a very wide range of species collected
and that's really unique in the deep sea environment," he said.
In the cold depths of the Southern Ocean "things grow
quite slowly so when you're looking at a coral which is maybe two metres high,
it may also be 300 years old or more," said Bax.
"So you end up seeing some very old things down
there. You can see corals which probably existed 2,000 years ago down there."
Scientists said that only a tiny proportion of
Australia's oceans had been explored in such a way and they could only speculate
on the biodiversity hidden under the water.
"We have no idea how many species there are, and most
of the species we get we only catch once," Bax said.
Environment Minister Peter Garrett described the
results as "an amazing day for Australian science".
"It's extraordinary to think that we've put someone
on the moon and we're very familiar with lots of parts of the planet, we've got
Google Earth and yet here we are, we've got parts of the planet that have never
been sighted or explored before," he told national radio.
The minister said the research would help the effort
to conserve Australia's ocean biodiversity.
"It'll greatly inform scientists as they deepen their
understanding about likely climate change impacts, water currents, and impacts
of water temperature on the diversity of species," Garrett said.
(Source: China Daily/Agencies)
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In this 2008 photo provided by the
Queensland Museum is a green banded snapping shrimp, Alpheus parvirostris,
taken from dead coral head off Heron Island,
Australia. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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