New ocean species discovered during research expedition off Bounty Trough, New Zealand

Scientists on an expedition to the underexplored Bounty Trough off New Zealand have discovered around 100 new and potentially new ocean species, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research of New Zealand (NIWA) recently confirmed.

The three-week voyage on NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa was the first flagship Southern Hemisphere expedition for Ocean Census, a global marine protection alliance founded by The Nippon Foundation and UK ocean exploration foundation Nekton.

The team of scientists from NIWA and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) collaborated with experts from the UK and Australia to collect almost 1,800 samples from as deep as 4,800 metres underwater along the 800-kilometre-long Bounty Trough.

Ocean Census Science Director Professor Alex Rogers, who co-led the expedition, says the team may have also discovered three new species of fish.

A global team of scientists is working to confirm the finds at taxonomic workshops at NIWA and Te Papa. Over the next three weeks, they will be sorting and describing the specimens collected so that these can be added to the picture of New Zealand’s marine biodiversity.

New species identified so far include dozens of molluscs, three fish, a shrimp, a cephalopod, and a new genera of coral.

NIWA said one find is baffling the experts. Queensland Museum Network Taxonomist Dr Michela Mitchell says the voyage team initially thought it might be a seastar, a sea-anemone, or zoanthid-like creature, but it has so far proven to be none of those.

Dr Mitchell said the team believes it could be a new species of octocoral, but also a new genus or wider grouping of species.

The specimens collected will be housed in the NIWA Invertebrate Collection and Te Papa in their Mollusca and Fish Collections.

NIWA said the knowledge gained from the expedition will be included in future editions of the New Zealand Marine Biota NIWA Biodiversity Memoir, which was recently published by NIWA and represents the collective knowledge of biodiversity in New Zealand to date, currently comprised of 18,494 known living species.