This new copepod, Ceratonotus steiningeri, was first discovered 5,400 metres deep in the Angola Basin in 2006. It was also collected in the southeastern Atlantic, as well as some 13,000 kilometres away in the central Pacific Ocean. Scientists are puzzled about how it achieved such widespread distribution and avoided detection for so long.
Credit: Jan Michels
An undated handout photo showing a recently discovered species called a squidworm found in the Celebes sea in Southeast Asia.
Credit: AFP/HO/Laurence Madin
LONDON: Results of the first ever global marine life census have been unveiled, revealing a startling overview after a decade-long trawl through the murky depths.
The Census of Marine Life estimated there are more than one million species in the oceans, with at least three-quarters of them yet to be discovered.
The US $650-million international study discovered more than 6,000 potentially new species, and found some species considered rare were actually common.
Everything from microbes to whales
The study said it offered "an unprecedented picture of the diversity, distribution and abundance of all kinds of marine life in Planet Ocean - from microbes to whales, from the icy poles to the warm tropics, from the tidal near shores to the deepest dark depths."
The census establishes a baseline against which 21st-century changes can be monitored. New species were discovered, marine highways and rest stops mapped and changes in species abundance were documented.
The research involved more than 2,700 scientists, 670 institutions, more than 540 expeditions and around 9,000 days at sea. Nearly 30 million observations of 120,000 species were made.
Eye-pumping beauty
The census was formally launched in London, with more than 300 figures involved gathering to share the results and consider their implications.
"The census has far exceeded any dream that I had. We felt like the people who created the first dictionary and encyclopaedia 250 years ago," said Jesse Ausubel, a scientist who co-founded the study.
"The most surprising thing was beauty. Our eyes pumped out of our head in front of this beauty."
Thousands more species yet to be discovered
The survey set out to find out what used to live in the oceans, what lives there now and what might live there in the future.
The census said 16,764 species of fish had so far been described, but an estimated 5,000 more were yet to be discovered.
Scientists found some species thought extinct 50 million years ago, while other finds were less encouraging.
Startling disappearance of sharks
Around 40% of plankton, at the bottom of the ocean food chain, has disappeared in the last 30 years, which was put down to a rise in ocean temperatures. Sharks have disappeared from 99% of some areas.
