More than one hundred new species found in deep-sea coral reefs and sponge gardens

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An international group of scientists has discovered more than 100 new species living on seamounts off the coast of Chile. From deep-sea corals to glass sponges, sea urchins, amphipods and squat lobsters, the scientists say these discoveries from a recent Schmidt Ocean expedition could be contributing to new science. Erin Easton, an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who was involved in the expedition, explains: "Our expectations and goals for this cruise were to collect representative fauna from the Nazca Ridge and Salas y Gómez Ridge and the Juan Fernandez Ridge. And we want to look to see if we can identify, how those benthic or seafloor communities of animals change with depth and among the different seamounts. And, we were looking to see if there were any, if each community of the seamount was distinct or if they were similar so that we can inform conservation management decisions." Descending into the deep ocean, the scientists used an underwater robot to explore seamounts along the Nazca and Salas y Gómez Ridge. They hope this data could support the designation of an international high-seas marine protected area. "So, on this expedition, we were able to observe over 150 species that have not been reported for the region. And we believe potentially 100 or more of those are new species to science. We observed, these large urchins called cactus urchins. There, they were quite tall, a half a meter sort of tall. And, we saw them in large clusters. We observed forests of corals, so we saw a forest of bamboo corals that were probably thousands of years old. We also saw many other species of corals that were probably on the order of thousands of years old," says Easton. The scientists also mapped 52,777 square kilometers of seafloor. A second expedition set off on 24 February along the Salas y Gómez Ridge. This article was provided by The Associated Press.