Arctic depths teeming with life, say explorers

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) – The remotest depths of the Arctic are
surprisingly full of life, including species of jellyfish and
worms believed to be previously unknown, explorers who just
finished exploring the area said on Friday.

The scientists, led by the University of Alaska, used robot
submarines and sonar to probe an isolated 12,470-foot
(3,800-meter) basin off Canada’s Arctic coast where they fear
species could be at risk from global warming.

“Unexpectedly high numbers and varieties of large Arctic
jellies, squid, cod, and other animals have been found thriving
in the extreme cold,” the team said in a statement.

Scientists from the United States, Canada, Russia and China
spent 30 days on the U.S. icebreaker Healy as part of a $1
billion, 10-year global Census of Marine Life funded by
governments, companies and private donors.

The Healy returned to port on Tuesday with thousands of
specimens from the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas and the Canada
Basin, a vast bowl walled by steep ridges and covered with ice.

“The Canada Basin is one of the world’s most isolated ocean
areas. Several creatures brought aboard the Healy are
unfamiliar to expedition experts and may well prove new to
science,” said Dr. Rolf Gradinger of the University of Alaska,
the chief scientist on the voyage.

The team said it found suspected new species of jellyfish
and benthic bristle worms as well as the first squid, octopus
and flea-like crustaceans ever seen in an icy environment.

“Overall, the densities of animals are much higher than
expected,” said researcher Dr. Bodil Bluhm.

The team said the data would help measure the impact of
climate change and, should polar caps continue receding, the
damage done by increased energy exploitation, fishing and
shipping.

U.N. studies say the Arctic could be largely ice-free in
summer by 2100 because of global warming, blamed mostly on gas
emissions from cars, power plants and factories.

The scientists say that if the northern polar cap melts,
more southerly species could enter Arctic waters and disrupt
the ecology. They are due to give a news conference about the
trip at 1 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Friday.

The team also said explorers would carry out similar
studies in the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic, where
conditions are much less settled than in the Canada Basin.

“Scientists now theorize the swirling Southern Ocean
current is an evolutionary caldron, upwelling Antarctic
nutrients and mixing life forms from the Pacific, Indian and
Atlantic oceans, returning them in centrifuge-like fashion,”
the statement said.

The Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart will lead the
project from December 2007 to March 2008. It will involve up to
200 scientists from 30 countries and take samples from as deep
as 16,500 feet.

“Because the Southern Ocean appears to be so critical to
the biology of the global ocean system, scientists are eager to
understand how continued climate change, if realized, will
affect it and the other oceans in turn,” the team said.