Hundreds of new marine species discovered in 'rainforests of the deep' off Australia

Hundreds of new marine species and huge underwater mountains have been discovered by scientists off the southern coast of Tasmania. Researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) found a rare species of stingray and 2,000-year-old corals along with 274 species new to science at two reserves in the Southern Ocean.

Sea mountains measuring 500 metres high and 25km wide were also uncovered. The mounts are the remnants of extinct volcanoes and are some of the most biologically important habitats in our oceans.

Professor Nic Bax from CSIRO described the 123 sea mounts as the 'rainforests of the deep'.

'When we went down and saw the number of sea mounts which were there, we were really surprised,' he added.

The richness of new species discovered have been described by marine scientists as 'astounding'.

Nearly 70 per cent of the fish, crustaceans, molluscs, sponges and coral analysed are believed to be new to science.

The discoveries were made between November 2006 and April 2007 during two voyages to reserves in the South-east Commonwealth Marine Reserve Network, which cover 226,000 sq km of the seabed.

Scientists onboard the research ship the Southern Surveyor also used advanced sonar equipment to create a map of the seabed, revealing 145 undersea canyons, some even larger than the Grand Canyon.

Australia’s Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the findings were 'a great day for Australian science'.

'The richness of molluscs found in these voyages has been described by marine scientists as astounding and requiring a complete rewrite of textbooks for this type of fauna,' he said.

The Daily Mail