The seabed is the world’s least unexplored area. There are estimated to be thousands of species that no one has yet seen.
Now more and more actors are becoming interested in the riches that are also hidden here, namely metals such as cobalt, nickel and copper. But in order for companies to be allowed to conduct mining operations on the seabed, they must first map which animals live down there.
Progress
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Thomas Dahlgren is a marine biologist at the University of Gothenburg and the research institute NORCE. He was on the research ship James Cook, which this spring made an expedition in an area between Mexico and Hawaii that has an area ten times larger than that of Sweden. He sat on board and followed as an underwater robot filmed the wildlife four kilometers below the surface.
The intestines are clearly visible on this transparent sea cucumber. Photo: SMARTEX Project, NOC
Can be 15,000 years old
– Some look like a cup, sometimes like a golf ball sitting on a stick, or like a harp or a funny little umbrella, he says.
The animals live on nutrients that sink down from the sea surface and they are sparsely distributed on the seabed. The underwater robot brought samples up to the surface for the scientists to study.
– Analyzes of animals in Antarctica similar to these can be up to 15,000 years old. The lack of food means that they are far from each other, so it is good that they live long so they have time to reproduce.
Designing protected areas
The researchers estimate that there are 5,000 species in the area they have investigated, but they have only collected around 1,000. Most are very small and live in the sediments. A few hundred are a bit larger and can be up to half a meter in size.
When the researchers know which species are found here and what distribution they have, they can produce evidence to protect these areas from mining.
– We have a moral responsibility to protect these species, says Thomas Dahlgren.
The pink porpoise plods along on the desolate plains of the seabed. Play the video to see it and some of the other newly discovered animals.