More than 5,000 new species discovered on seabed of Pacific Ocean

Researchers have discovered more than 5,000 species in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific Ocean. The study noted that around 88 to 92 per cent of the species had never been seen before.

The CCZ is known for housing critical minerals needed to build batteries, but the same region is also rich in marine life. The vast region spans 5,000 kilometres across the central Pacific Ocean, at depths of ~4,000 - 5,500 metres.

Part of the study mentioned that the region is composed of abyssal seafloor, characterised by muddy sediments overlain by potato-sized polymetallic nodules, which are a potential mineral resource for copper, nickel, cobalt, iron, manganese and other rare earth elements.

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According to the study published on Thursday (May 25) in the scientific journal Current Biology, the region has been identified as a future hotspot for deep-sea mining. It is the first time that it has been comprehensively documented.

Muriel Rabone, the paper’s lead author, and a deep-sea ecologist at the Natural History Museum (NHM), said, "We share this planet with all this amazing biodiversity and we have a responsibility to understand it and protect it."

Rabone said that ecologists and biologists, looking to understand what may be at risk once companies started mining, began exploring the CCZ.

The zone receives little sunlight and has low-food availability, but despite the darkness and low food availability, nodule field habitats contain diverse communities of benthic invertebrate fauna.

'Just remarkable species down there'

Researchers travelled to the Pacific Ocean on research cruises to collect samples and looked through more than 100,000 records of species found in the CCZ during their travels.

Rabone said in a press release. "There's some just remarkable species down there. Some of the sponges look like classic bath sponges, and some look like vases. They're just beautiful. One of my favorites is the glass sponges. They have these little spines, and under the microscope, they look like tiny chandeliers or little sculptures."

Researchers said they hope there will be more studies of the region's biodiversity. "This is particularly important given that the CCZ remains one of the few remaining areas of the global ocean with high intactness of wilderness," researchers wrote in the study.

"Sound data and understanding are essential to shed light on this unique region and secure its future protection from human impacts," they furtheradded.

"We make these data and interpretations open to all stakeholders to inform the ongoing debate on deep-sea mineral extraction and to grow our knowledge of the largest ecosystem on our planet," the study mentioned.

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