A robotic submarine has uncovered the sea floor secrets of the ocean off north-eastern Australia, revealing deep-water coral communities and creatures that had only been found in foreign waters before now.
Key points:
- A large area of the Coral Sea floor has been mapped for the first time
- The research ship was without a mission after its original destination of PNG closed its ports due to the pandemic
- A team of scientists in Australia put it to use and remotely directed mapping and robotic dives from their homes
An army of scientists on social media helped to identify rarely seen fish and marine life after the submarine beamed back pictures from the deep waters of the Coral Sea — Australia's largest protected area.
"It's revealed all sorts of amazing things we never contemplated were there," said University of Sydney geoscientist Jody Webster, one of the leaders of the expedition.
"It will rewrite what we thought about the deep-water communities out in the Coral Sea."
The expedition means scientists now have the first high-resolution footage and mapping of the crucial marine protected area, which connects the Great Barrier Reef to the Pacific Ocean.
Dr Webster said new discoveries in the area included four drowned reefs, which would need to be named, and an "incredible network of submarine canyons".
He said massive underwater landslides in the area, where up to six kilometres of slope had fallen, had created "amazing habitats for cold-water coral communities — deep-water coral and other things that we had never seen there before".
A full analysis of the habitats will take more time, but the researchers believe some of the marine life seen on the expedition could be entirely new to science.
New tech reveals an ancient world
The deep ocean was mapped using an advanced multibeam sonar system aboard the R/V Falkor — an oceanographic research ship owned by the non-profit Schmidt Ocean Institute, which was set up by Google founder Eric Schmidt.
The research team mapped 35,554 square kilometres — an area more than half the size of Tasmania — and did 14 dives with the robotic submarine, which went down as far as 1,600 metres and spent almost 100 hours in the water.
Every reef on the Queensland plateau was mapped, and almost half of them were explored with the submarine.
James Cook University (JCU) marine geologist Robin Beaman, another expedition leader, said only shallow parts of the reefs had been mapped previously.
"The Moon is 100 per cent mapped, but here on Earth we probably only have about 20 per cent of the deep oceans mapped with any detail," Professor Beaman said.
The expedition would not have happened were it not for the global pandemic.
The R/V Falkor was in the region ready to embark on missions from Papua New Guinea.
But as ports closed, it found itself without a mission — so the institute reached out to Professor Beaman and asked if there was something he could use the ship for.
"That was an opportunity to resurrect an idea I had a long time ago," Professor Beaman said.
None of his team could get aboard the ship, so Professor Beaman and his colleagues directed the mapping and robotic diving remotely from their homes around Australia.
'Fish army' helps fill knowledge gaps
The images gathered by the robotic submarine were broadcast live on social media.
As word spread online, the number of scientists working on the mission grew. Professor Beaman said a group of people he referred to as "the fish army" became increasingly interested in the livestreams.
Among them was Yi-Kai Tea, a University of Sydney PhD candidate who specialises in identifying coral reef species. He got involved when another scientist, not involved in the mission, tagged him on Twitter suggesting a fish seen in the livestream was new to science.
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Among his favourite discoveries was a species of spikefish called Hollardia goslinei, which Mr Tea said was "an incredible find".
The brightly coloured, spotted fish has only ever been seen in Hawaii before.
"It's presence here in Australia makes this a significant range extension," Mr Tea said.
He said it was possible this specimen was actually a distinct and entirely new species, but further work would be needed to confirm that.
The team also saw many coffinfish, with large, human-like faces. They are not new to science, but rarely seen alive.
They caught a glimpse of a number of Bennett's fairy basslets, called Tosanoides bennetti — a species first described just last year and never before filmed alive.
Mr Tea said the livestream also featured fishes that were rarely seen in their natural habitat, and instead were usually only found mutilated and dead in fishing nets.
"A lot of these species are known only from dead specimens in jars and museums," he said.
"So having a look at them in the wild has been a really informative experience for us."
Hopes new knowledge will aid protection
Mr Tea said it had been thrilling to see areas of the ocean no human had ever set eyes on before.
"It's giving us a really good look at habitats that are just too poorly known, giving us a great glimpse of fishes that we don't see very often because it's just really inaccessible to people," he said.
Professor Beaman said now they knew what marine life was present and what the sea floor looked like, scientists and park managers could more easily predict what sea life lived elsewhere in the Coral Sea.
"Good mapping like this [means] you can start to make connections between the marine life and the oceanography," he said.
The team is preparing for a second mission in a few months. With more time to prepare, they hope to gain approval to take samples, and confirm their hypotheses that much of what they saw was new to science.
Professor Beaman said the team was working closely with marine park managers, who helped them prioritise which areas to focus their studies on.
"The Coral Sea is a huge area that Australia owns — but we had no idea what's there," he said.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiW2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTA2LTE4L2NvcmFsLXNlYS1vdXRlci1yZWVmLXJvYm90LXNlYS1mbG9vci12aXNpb24vMTIzNjc0MTTSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTIzNjc0MTQ?oc=5
2020-06-17 20:14:17Z
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