Norwegian scientists said yesterday they may have found several new species of marine life, including previously unknown fish and squids, after scouring the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean in one of the most extensive marine expeditions in history.
Researchers on the MAR-ECO expedition, which has spent two months mapping the undersea ecosystem around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the world's largest mountain range, said they found an unexpected diversity of marine life near the sea bottom, previously thought to be a largely desolate expanse.
Using highly advanced echo-sounders, robotic deep-sea vehicles and trawl nets, the expedition brought back more than 350 species of fish and squid.
At least five of those, including a deep-sea angler fish and two unusual squids, seem to be new species, they said. Many other species had never before been found near the ridge, which stretches more than 6,000km between Iceland and the Azores.
The researchers also found mysterious burrows left by an unknown animal on an undersea mountain 2,000m below the surface.
The MAR-ECO expedition, which included 60 scientists, students and technicians from 13 countries, also found rings of plankton organisms that measured 10km wide. The rings, which are produced by underwater currents, are the largest ever found, the statement said.
The Norwegian-led MAR-ECO expedition is a pilot project of the 10-year, US$1 billion Census of Marine Life project, an international research endeavor that aims to provide scientists with a better understanding of deep sea ecosystems, and explain how they change over time.
More than 300 scientists from 53 countries are involved in the census project.
"Investigations of marine life have just begun," Odd Aksel Bergstad, the lead scientist on the MAR-ECO expedition, said in a statement, "and it's only now, when we can utilize custom-built research ships and the finest modern technology, that we can learn how ecosystems in the oceans are structured and function."
ROCKY RELATIONS: The figures on residents come as Chinese tourist numbers drop following Beijing’s warnings to avoid traveling to Japan The number of Chinese residents in Japan has continued to rise, even as ties between the two countries have become increasingly fractious, data released on Friday showed. As of the end of December last year, the number of Chinese residents had increased by 6.5 percent from the previous year to 930,428. Chinese people accounted for 22.6 percent of all foreign residents in Japan, making them by far the largest group, Japanese Ministry of Justice data showed. Beijing has criticized Tokyo in increasingly strident terms since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last year suggested that a military conflict around Taiwan could
A retired US colonel behind a privately financed rocket launch site in the Dominican Republic sees the project as a response to China’s dominance of the space race in Latin America. Florida-based Launch on Demand is slated to begin building a US$600 million facility in a remote region near the border with Haiti late this year. The project is designed to meet surging demand for the heavy-lift rockets needed to put clusters of satellites into orbit. It is also an answer to China’s growing presence in the region, said CEO Burton Catledge, a former commander of the US Air Force’s 45th Operations
Germany is considering Australia’s Ghost Bat robot fighter as it looks to select a combat drone to modernize its air force, German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius said yesterday. Germany has said it wants to field hundreds of uncrewed fighter jets by 2029, and would make a decision soon as it considers a range of German, European and US projects developing so-called “collaborative combat aircraft.” Australia has said it will integrate the Ghost Bat, jointly developed by Boeing Australia and the Royal Australian Air Force, into its military after a successful weapons test last year. After inspecting the Ghost Bat in Queensland yesterday,
A pro-Iran hacking group claimed to breach FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal e-mail inbox and posted some of the contents online. The e-mails provided by the hacking group include travel details, correspondence with leasing agents in Washington and global entry, and loyalty account numbers. The e-mail address the hackers claim to have compromised has been previously tied to Patel’s personal details, and the leaked e-mails contain photos of Patel and others, in addition to correspondence with family members and colleagues. “The FBI is aware of malicious actors targeting Director Patel’s personal email information,” the agency said in a statement on
RSS