|
SEA OF DISCOVERY: Giant starfish (above), an Antarctic toothfish and a sea cucumber are among the species found during a survey of New Zealand's Antarctic seas. -- PHOTOS: AP
|
|
|
WELLINGTON - SCIENTISTS have found that some marine life does not come small in Antarctic waters.
Researchers were surprised by giant-sized specimens they found during a major survey of New Zealand's Antarctic seas that ended this week.
Huge sea snails, jellyfish with tentacles up to 4m long and starfish the size of big food platters were some of the species found during research vessel Tangaroa's 50-day, 3,200km voyage in the Ross Sea, said marine scientist Don Robertson.
'I would say there will be hundreds' of previously unknown organisms and 'a lot of new species' among the 30,000 specimens collected, he said.
Cold temperatures, low predator numbers, high levels of oxygen in the seawater and even longevity could explain the size of some specimens, he added.
Mr Robertson is a science manager with New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).
His team said the Ross Sea survey was the most comprehensive so far.
The researchers took samples of every level of water from the surface to the sea floor up to 3,500m below - and all creatures in between.
One of the surprises was fields of half-metre-high sea lilies stretching for hundreds of metres across the sea floor.
'Some of these big meadows of sea lilies I don't think anybody has seen before,' said Niwa fisheries scientist Stu Hanchet.
The survey is part of the International Polar Year programme involving 23 countries and 10 other voyages to survey marine life and habitats around the frozen southern continent.
The survey voyages are expected to be completed by July next year.
New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries scientist Mary Livingston, who did not take part in the survey, described the latest finds as 'really fantastic'.
She said it was 'almost inevitable' that the scientists find new species of marine life, given how little is known about Antarctic waters.
'Doing this census really has been a voyage of discovery,' she said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
|
