• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Divers Find New Species Off Aleutian Islands

Posted on: Thursday, 17 January 2008, 06:00 CST

There are unknown creatures lurking under the windswept islands of the Aleutians, according to a team of scientific divers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. This summer, while completing the second phase of a two-year broad scientitle survey of the waters around the Aleutian Islands offshore Alaska, scientists have discovered what may be three new marine organisms. This year's dives surveyed the western region of the Aleutians, from Attu to Amlia Island, while last year's assessment covered the eastern region.

During the dives, two potentially new species of sea anemones were discovered. Stephen Jewett, a professor of marine biology and the dive leader on the expedition, said that these are walking or swimming anemones, because they move across the seafloor as they feed. While most sea anemones are anchored to the seabed, a swimming anemone can detach and drift with ocean currents. The size of these anemones ranges from the size of a softball to the size of a basketball.

Another new species is a kelp or brown algae that scientists have named the Golden V kelp or Aureophycus aleuticus. According to Mandy Lindeberg, an algae expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service and a member of the expedition, the kelp may represent a new genus, or even family, of the seaweed. Up to 10 feet long, the kelp was discovered near thermal vents in the region of the Islands of the Four Mountains.

"Since the underwater world of the Aleutian Islands has been studied so little, new species are being discovered, even today," said Jewett.

He added that even more new species may be revealed as samples collected during the dives continue to be analyzed.

The organisms were found while surveying more than 1,000 miles of rarely explored coastline, from Attu to the Tigalda Islands. Logging more than 300 hours underwater, the divers collected hundreds of water, biological and chemical samples during 440 dives.

According to Jewett, the scientists are reasonably sure that the kelp is a new species, but more work is being done to confirm that the sea anemone species are completely new to science. Correspondence with anemone experts has so far shown the anemones to be new species, but the analysis is ongoing.

Source: Sea Technology

More News in this Category