‘Barbie pigs’ and ‘unicummbers’ among several bizarre new species discovered at proposed deep-sea mining site in the Pacific Ocean
Between 13,000 and 16,000 feet under the sea, biodiversity researchers have rushed to document freakish new marine life ahead of a green energy mining project.
Their latest finds include a bright pink ‘Barbie pig’, a multi-legged ‘amperima’ sea cucumber that searches the seabed for dead plankton, also known as ‘marine snow’.
Other specimens include an alien and perfectly translucent sea pig, known as a ‘unicummber’, and one of the deepest living vertebrates now known to science, the ‘rattail fish’.
The project hopes to develop an ecological census of this deep-sea region, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), which happens to possess a vast reserve of potato-sized polymetallic nodules, rich in metallic elements essential for advanced batteries.
“We can assume that many of these species will be new to science,” explains a marine biologist working with London’s Natural History Museum (NHM).
“Sometimes,” she added, “they have been seen/observed/known before, but not collected or formally described.”
The latest finds from London’s Natural History Museum working with the SMARTEX study into the impact of mining on the seabed include the pink ‘Barbie Pig’ – a sea cucumber that searches the ocean floor for dead plankton, ‘marine snow’ or more technically ‘phytodetritus ‘ named.
Although the alien and perfectly translucent sea pig, also known as a ‘unicumber’, has been photographed in previous ‘seabed surveys’, no physical sample of the species had yet been collected – nor had the creature been photographed in high definition. for
“For example,” continued marine biologist Regen Drennan, “the sea pig nicknamed ‘unicummber’ had been seen in previous seafloor surveys.”
“But to our knowledge not collected or depicted in high definition.”
Likewise, researchers know little about the life cycle of the Rattail fish, as few examples of the creature’s larval hatchlings have ever been recovered for research.
But the Rattail, with its large blue eyes, is known to have powerful senses for hunting for food in the inky depths of the ocean.
“It has a nose for rotting carrion,” said researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, “and sensitive barbels on its chin detect small crustaceans or worms wiggling in the mud below.”
‘Barbels’ are what marine scientists call the catfish-like, whisker-like filaments that protrude from the mouths of some fish.
As Drennan explained on the news site IFLScienceForaging for food in the 5 kilometer depth of the CCZ is particularly difficult because life is so scattered and sparse in this deep, dark and inhospitable region of the Pacific Ocean.
Parts of the CCZ, between Hawaii and Mexico, extend to a staggering 5,500 meters – or almost as deep as the peak of Kilimanjaro is high.
CCZ’s low population density, she said, has also made London’s NHM research more challenging.
“The distribution of these animals seemed quite patchy,” Drennan explained. ‘The dominant sea cucumber during an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) dive may be completely absent at another location – while another is more common.’
“In terms of densities that we are used to, for example on land or (in) shallower marine systems,” she said, “the deep sea in general (and this area of the CCZ) is characterized by very low population densities, largely because it food is so limited.’
One of the deepest-living vertebrates known to science, the ‘rattail fish’ also found in the CCZ, remains poorly understood because samples of the rare fish’s larvae are difficult to obtain
The rattail fish, with its large blue eyes (pictured), is known to have powerful senses for hunting for food in the dark depths of the ocean where, as one marine biologist notes, “food is so limited.”
Many of the researchers at London’s NHM, led by deep-sea researcher Dr. Adrian Glover, got their first good glimpse of the novel “Barbie Pig” while revisiting their ROV footage during a flight back east to Costa Rica.
The creature’s pink-inspired name was suggested by PhD student Bethany Fleming from Britain’s National Oceanography Center in Southampton.
Although more research is needed to confirm this, the sea pig appears to be making its debut as an entirely new species, captured by the team’s high-definition imaging survey.
Another way in which deep-sea creatures like the “Barbie pig” can be challenging to obtain and study is their fragility.
Outside their cold and dark habitat, where water pressure is as much as 7,200 pounds per square inch, sea pigs’ bodies will disintegrate and self-dissolve into “marine snow.”
Nevertheless, the London NHM team hopes to collect enough specimens to understand the CCZ’s sparse and unique ecosystem.
‘Many of the specimens will be used for research,’ PhD student Eva Stewart told IFLScience, ‘looking at diversity patterns across the seabed in this area.’
‘All collected specimens go back to the museum.’
The scientists at the London museum conducted their research as part of a project called SMARTEX, ‘Seabed Mining and Resilience to Experimental Impact.’
The British-led effort hopes to determine (alongside more ‘purely scientific’ discoveries) what the environmental impact might be if seabed mining kicks up giant plumes of deep-sea debris during efforts to harvest CCZ’s large supply of metal nodules .
Many of the nodules have lain motionless on the ocean floor for millions of years.
But mining groups interested in the metals have emphasized that their planned work in the CCZ would have a small footprint.
“(90) percent of the world’s nodule exploration contracts are in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, which represents less than half of 1 percent of the global seabed,” The Metals Company PR and Media Manager Rory Usher told IFLScience.
“But this represents the largest source of manganese, nickel and cobalt anywhere in the world,” Usher continued, “and that dwarfs anything on land by orders of magnitude.”
These heavy metals are highly sought after core components for the batteries that power smartphones, laptops and electric vehicles. They are largely seen as essential to humanity’s shift to fossil fuels.
“There are enough metals at two of the sites that would meet the needs of 280 million (electric, battery-powered) cars,” Usher said, “which amounts to every car in America, or a quarter of the fleet in the world. ‘