Marine scientists have discovered more than 110 new fish species and invertebrates in the Coral Sea. It is thought that the number could exceed 200 as more species are discovered.
The species was discovered on the east side of the Great Barrier Reef, in waters between 200 meters and 3 kilometers deep in Coral Sea Marine Park, Australia’s largest marine reserve, spanning approximately 1 meter square kilometer.
The new scientific species, including spider stars, crabs, sea anemones and sponges, were collected during a 35-day voyage by a CSIRO research vessel that set out from Brisbane in October last year. The ship sailed to Mellish Reef, about 1,000 kilometers off the coast of Queensland.
Dr Will White, shark expert and CSIRO’s lead scientist on the voyage, said the expedition set out to learn more about the area’s deep-sea biodiversity, but data on it was “very limited”.
Specimens collected on board were then identified during what Mr White believes is “probably the largest marine animal classification workshop ever undertaken in Australia”.
White himself identified four new species: skates, rays, deep-sea cat sharks, and chimeras.
The species of stingray discovered on the Ken Plateau, about halfway between Australia and New Caledonia, was a species of stingray in the genus Stingray. urolophus. White said the animals looked like stingrays. “They have relatively long tails, but they have a caudal fin at the end.”
New deep-sea cat shark (genus) App Struth) was a tropical species, White said. “They’re very dark-bodied, almost flabby – they’re really deep-sea creatures, and they move very slowly. [with] It has many small teeth. ”
skating I’m going to soakwas light gray in color and had “a fairly long snout…with hard cartilage in the middle,” White said. “It has a fleshy part that forms a long triangular snout, and there are some spines around the eyes.”
Another discovery is a new chimera, also known as a ghost shark or ratfish, a type of animal related to sharks and rays that has a skeleton of cartilage rather than bone. This animal has a “mouse-like tail, a fairly plump snout, and a large spine resting on the dorsal fin.”
Australian Museum marine invertebrate collections manager Dr Claire Rowe said invertebrate experts on board the research vessel photographed the newly collected animals and took tissue samples.
She said many invertebrates, including jellyfish, are cryptic and difficult to identify based on physical characteristics alone. “It looks like there’s a new species of sea anemone, which is very interesting,” she says.
Scientists were conducting further genetic testing on the tissue samples to ensure that the specimens collected were new to science.
Lowe said such ocean explorations were important because “very little is known about the deep sea.”
“It’s a very unexplored region and there are many threats to our oceans, including overfishing, climate change and deep-sea mining, so we need to understand what’s out there before we lose them.”
Climate scientists say the Coral Sea is nearly half a degree warmer than it was 30 to 40 years ago. Both last summer and the calendar year, sea surface temperatures there were the warmest on record.
Samples from the voyage are shared across the country and are held in collections including the CSIRO, Australian Museum and State Museums.
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