Scientists are still very far from knowing all the fauna and flora of the oceans. And it is in one of the most fragile ecosystems in the world that new discoveries have been made. Thirty marine species have been discovered in the depths of the reserve of the Ecuadorian archipelago of the Galapagos, announced Monday the management of this reserve, one of the largest in the world.
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Scientists from @DarwinFound, @parquegalapagos, @nautiluslive and an international team of deep-sea experts discovered fragile coral and sponge communities hosting 30 deep-sea invertebrate species that are new to science. # 30NewSpecieshttps: //t.co/tDxGFKKPZs
Among the new invertebrates are four species of okupa lobster, around 15 species of coral, one species of starfish and eleven species of sponges, the National Park said. These discoveries were made thanks to remote-controlled submarine devices that can descend to 3,400 meters. “The depths of the sea remain the last frontier on Earth, and this study provides an exhaustive knowledge of” the fauna that lives there, said the Spanish oceanologist Pelayo Salinas de Leon, member of the Charles Darwin Foundation (FCD) and of the National Geographic specialty television station's Pristine Seas project, which led the study.
Explorations around underwater mountains
The explorations, which took place in 2015 and the results of which have just been revealed, focused on three seamounts located in the reserve, on the outskirts of Darwin and Wolf Islands. "These underwater mountains are found in the Galapagos Marine Reserve and are protected from destructive human practices such as bottom trawling or deep-sea mining, practices that have catastrophic effects on these fragile communities," he said. stressed the scientist.
With 138,000 square kilometers, the Galapagos Marine Reserve is the second largest in the world. Its depths conceal very diverse habitats that nourish the biodiversity of the islands, located some 1,000 kilometers from the Ecuadorian coast. There is also between the Darwin and Wolf Islands, in the north of the archipelago, a natural sanctuary of 38,000 square kilometers which is home to the largest population of sharks in the world.
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