Scientists have discovered six new marine species in planned mining areas of the Indian Ocean.
Researchers from the University of Southampton remotely operating a seafaring robot found worms, snails, an unidentified limpet, and a “hairy-chested ‘Hoff’” crab near hydrothermal vents, which form where magma reaches the sea floor. These vents produce ecosystems that foster creatures unlike any others in the world.
The area known as Longqi is 2,000km southeast of Madagascar and 2.8km below sea level. Longqi is slated for future underwater mineral mining.
Researchers examined a survey area on the ocean floor the size of a football stadium, locating more than a dozen mineral spires called “vent chimneys.”
The team’s leader, Dr. Jon Copley, said that they “can be certain that the new species we’ve found also live elsewhere in the southwest Indian Ocean” and probably “migrated here from other sites.”
He added that “at the moment no-one really knows where, or how well-connected their populations are with those at Longqi.”
“Our results highlight the need to explore other hydrothermal vents in the southwest Indian Ocean and investigate the connectivity of their populations, before any impacts from mineral exploration activities and future deep-sea mining can be assessed.”
Hydrothermal vents have been the discovery point for more than 400 new animal species since 1977.
