Dr. Seuss couldn't have imagined this.
Forests of ancient coral. Groups of underwater hedgehogs with cactus-like spines, as if a desert had been flooded. Gardens of glassy sponges clinging to the slopes of an underwater mountain range rising thousands of meters above the seabed.
Deep-sea researchers searching beneath the waves off the coast of Chile may have found more than 100 species completely new to science.
More than 100 potentially new species were discovered by deep-sea researchers off the Chilean coast in January and February 2024. (Video: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
The potential discovery of the new creatures on ten seamounts in the southeast Pacific not only contributes to a deeper understanding of the sheer diversity of marine life. For researchers, it shows how marine protection measures introduced by the Chilean government are helping to boost biodiversity – an encouraging sign for other countries looking to protect their marine waters.
“Every single seamount had a different ecosystem on it,” said Hannah Nolan, expedition and community outreach specialist at the Schmidt Ocean Institute, an oceanographic research nonprofit that conducted the expedition.
14,000 feet under the sea
Using an underwater robot that can descend more than 14,000 feet, the research team worked from Jan. 8 to Feb. 11 to bring samples from the depths to the surface. The Southeast Pacific, a geologically active region, is dotted with hydrothermal vents that help sustain a wide variety of life.
Only by analyzing the animals' body structure and genes in a laboratory on land can scientists determine whether the animals are really new species.
The journey along the seamounts that stretch from the coast of South America to Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, was a jackpot for sea sponges, said Javier Sellanes, a scientist at the Universidad Católica del Norte who led the research. “Earlier, only two species were properly reported for the area, now we have found about 40 different species,” he said.
Marine life that may be new to science includes ghostly white sponges and lobsters with beady eyes and spiny legs, as well as corals, sea urchins, starfish and crinoids.
A video of seamounts off the coast of Chile taken in January and February 2024 shows corals, sea urchins, starfish and crinoids that are likely new to science. (Video: Schmidt Ocean Institute)
The team explored two marine parks – Juan Fernández and Nazca-Desventuradas – where Chile has restricted fishing. But they also searched areas outside the country's national waters – a part of the ocean called the high seas over which no government has jurisdiction.
Ocean advocates want to protect these seamounts Protecting international waters from overfishing and deep-sea mining by establishing a new marine protected area under a United Nations treaty signed last year. Around the world, nations are aiming to protect 30 percent of the world's oceans by the end of the decade to stem the loss of the Earth's remaining wild plants and animals to extinction.