Over 5,000 New Deep Sea Species Found In Area At Risk Of Rare Metal Mining
Around 90 percent of the species found in the new study were entirely unknown to science.
author
TOM HALE
A total of 5,578 different species, around 90 percent of which are entirely new to science, have been found in the depths of the Pacific Ocean in a future hotspot for deep-sea mining.
The discovery came from an international team of scientists who recently surveyed a 6 million square kilometer (1.7 million square mile) patch of sea known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the central and eastern Pacific stretching from Mexico to Hawaii.
Among the thousands of lifeforms they found were different species of sea cucumbers, nematodes, carnivorous sponges, worms, arthropods, and sea urchin-like echinoderms.
Remarkably, almost all are unique to the region. The researchers estimate that only six species have been identified elsewhere in the world.
https://www.iflscience.com/over-5000-deep-sea-creatures-found-in-area-at-risk-of-rare-metal-mining-69121
