Deep beneath the waves of the sea, hidden ecosystems have thrived for millennia. Scientists continue to discover more of them, including the recent find of a whole new underwater mountain and 20 potentially new deep-sea species about 900 miles off the coast of Chile.
Discovering so many rare and likely new species is exciting, but far more unknown species lurk in the abyss just waiting to be discovered. While their ecosystems have long escaped human notice, there’s no guarantee they’ll escape human influence.
“These creatures rely on very pristine ecosystems which are easily interrupted and tipped out of balance,” says Tomer Ketter, Schmidt Ocean Institute’s (SOI) marine technician who co-led the expedition with SOI executive director Jyotika Virmani.
New Marine Life Discovered Near Nazca Ridge
In this new finding, the researchers explored a submerged mountain range called the Nazca Ridge aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) research vessel.
The underwater mountain range is bordered by the Atacama Trench, the Southeast Pacific Oxygen Minimum Zone (where lack of oxygen makes it difficult for many creatures to survive), and the Humboldt Current (which is an upwelling of water that has significantly different salinity, temperature, and oxygen levels). It’s surrounded by a canyon, a desert, and a volcano and the terrain does not encourage many creatures to travel far, so around half of the Nazca Ridge species simply don’t.
Read More: Startling New Sea Creatures
Scicam Promachoteuthis squid(Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute)
Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), researchers were surprised to come across a Casper octopus during a test dive that went as deep as 4,500 meters or three miles underwater. The dive was meant to assess the ROV’s performance following some maintenance. This type of octopus was discovered nearly a decade ago, but the species has remained unknown because experts haven’t collected a reference sample.
In another encounter, the team spotted a billowing curtain-like creature that may be a new species and a type of deepstaria jellyfish, and a type of dusty rose jellyfish that resembled a swimming cupcake. The species, while known, was so reticent or rare that it was only spotted around 20 times prior. A flying spaghetti monster was also in the depths, which was actually a cluster of creatures known as a siphonophore – basically dozens of polyps in a trench coat, each performing a specific function for the organism.
Along with these creatures, researchers spotted a ghostly translucent squid with red eyes and tentacles, which had never been seen alive before. The team strongly suspected it was a new species and could even be a part of a whole new genus.
Read More: These 12 Deep Sea Creatures Are More Comical Than Creepy
Using Satellites to Find an Unknown Seamount
New seamount discovered with Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) SuBastian (Credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
The Nazca Ridge remains relatively uncharted — so much so that the SOI team discovered a whole new underwater mountain while using space-based observations.
A satellite gravity model hinted that there was more mass concentrated in a particular area along the ridge, so the team went to investigate and discovered the new underwater mountain.
“We mapped the seamount in much higher resolution and can now look at it and understand the processes that shaped it,” Ketter says. “You can see a scar of a landslide so you know that part is a little unstable, or you can see underwater canyons, so you know that there’s water and debris flowing through there.”
Read More: Satellites Map Out Seafloor as Never Before
Why These Deep-Sea Species Are Vulnerable
Along ridges where seamounts can be large but widely separated, the seamounts are typically entire worlds themselves. So, it came with little surprise that many of the unknown species the scientists found were spotted in the new seamount.
The new species are particularly vulnerable because the deep sea is so remote and not used to change that in some cases, environments could take thousands or even millions of years to recover from destruction.
When Casper octopuses lay eggs, for example, they secure them to dead deep-sea sponges and embrace them for protection until they hatch. If their brooding grounds were damaged, it could be a disaster for the species.
Read More: 5 Vulnerable Animal Species That May Surprise You
Protecting Marine Areas From Human Impact
Because of this, the recent expedition’s findings could help establish the Nazca Ridge as a marine protected area.
Deep seafloor dwellers like sponges and corals “can take hundreds to thousands of years to grow, but it only takes a second for a bottom trawler to destroy them,” says Brian Kennedy, a deep-sea ecologist and visiting researcher at Boston University, who was not involved in this expedition.
And the potential threats don’t end there. “Couple [climate change] with multiple stressors like increased fishing pressure, deep sea mining, deoxygenation, and ocean acidification and you have a recipe for disaster,” says Kennedy.
But right now, there are no protections in place at the Nazca Ridge – a place known to host a vast number of creatures that are found nowhere else in the world.
Protecting underwater mountains, called seamounts, would contribute greatly to conservation efforts.
“On a global scale, seamounts account for a pretty small fraction of the ocean’s surface area,” Kennedy says, “but play a very outsized role given their relative rareness.”
“As a species, we have a tendency to exploit natural resources until they’re gone, and then we have to face the consequences,” Ketter says. “We have to prevent that ‘no turning back’ point. It would be a shame to reach into such a pristine ecosystem and ruin it before we even have a chance to understand it.”
Read More: How Volunteers Are Helping Keep Coral Reefs Alive
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