During an expedition near the Cocos Islands, researchers came across numerous deep-sea creatures. They want to have discovered new species.
The batfish walks across the seabed on its fins.
We recently found out that life five thousand meters below the surface of the sea seems strange. That’s where the batfish lives, for example. He has fins that look like arms, and on them he walks on the seabed. It does not have to worry about the search for food, which runs almost automatically: the fish always carries a bait in a recess on its snout to attract prey.
An Australian research group discovered these and other bizarre creatures during a deep-sea expedition in the Indian Ocean. The journey led to the nature reserve around the Cocos Islands, which lie two thousand kilometers off the Australian west coast. As the Museums Victoria Research Institute writes in a report on the expedition, the scientists assume that a third of the living things belong to undiscovered species.
The group traveled for 35 days this fall. The aim of the trip: to map the seabed around the Cocos Islands in detail for the first time ever. Because the Cocos Islands are actually no more than the summit of a massive deep-sea mountain, the area of which is still almost unexplored.
The researchers traveled 11,000 kilometers on the ship of the Australian science authority CSIRO. They recorded videos underwater – their cameras reached five thousand meters below the sea surface.
Fish walking on stilts
What they found down there exceeded all expectations, expedition leader Tim O’Hara of the Museums Victoria Research Institute is quoted as saying in the report. Numerous creatures hitherto unknown to science became entangled in the research group’s small trawl nets.
For example the almost blind eel. His skin is transparent and his eyes are poorly developed. In this species of eel, the females give birth to live young. The research institute writes that this is highly unusual for fish, which otherwise mainly lay eggs.
Victoria Museum, Blind Eel
The researchers discovered a blind eel on the seabed (left). Until now, scientists did not know about the existence of this fish. The lizardfish (right) is a deep sea predator. His mouth is full of sharp teeth.
The researchers also discovered spider fish on the seabed. Similar to the batfish, they move along the bottom. Their long fins resemble stilts, which they use to support themselves on the seabed. This is how they reach the perfect height to eat shrimp.
The lizard fish, on the other hand, are predators, as shown by their mouths full of teeth. They are hermaphrodites, meaning they have both functional male and female reproductive tissue.
Students watched
The research group shared their discoveries with high school students from across Australia during the expedition. 850 school children were able to follow the research trip via live streams.
The area around the Cocos Islands has been a nature reserve since March this year. The Museum Victoria Research Institute’s expedition was intended to provide the Australian government with scientific data to better manage the area in the future. The group explored 744,000 square kilometers of the Indian Ocean.