Stunning Antarctic Sea Creatures Discovered after Iceberg Breaks Away
A calving iceberg exposed a region that never before had been seen by human eyes, revealing a vibrant, thriving ecosystem
A large sponge, a cluster of anemones, and other life is seen nearly 230 meters deep at an area of the seabed that was very recently covered by the George VI Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Sponges can grow very slowly, sometimes less than two centimeters a year, so the size of this specimen suggests this community has been active for decades, perhaps even hundreds of years.
ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
In H. P. Lovecraft’s chilling science-fiction novella At the Mountains of Madness, a group of researchers uncovers the ruins of an ancient alien civilization while exploring beneath Antarctica. Now a real team has investigated what lies beneath some of the frozen continent’s floating ice, and its findings are certainly otherworldly.
Scientists onboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor (too) sailed to Antarctica to study the nearby seafloor, the creatures that live there and the way climate change is affecting Antarctic ice and the ecosystems that evolved around it. But their plan was sidetracked after an iceberg the size of Chicago broke away from a nearby ice shelf in Bellingshausen Sea on January 13.
The ice front left behind where the iceberg calved off in the Bellingshausen Sea.
Alex Ingle/Schmidt Ocean Institute
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That event presented an opportunity that was too good to pass up: the chance to explore the seafloor below the iceberg’s original location—like overturning a rock or log in the woods to see what creatures lie hidden underneath. “There was a sense of going into a complete unknown,” says the expedition’s co-chief scientist Sasha Montelli of University College London. “We thought we might see some life there, but it was really surprising to see the degree to which life was thriving in such a hostile environment. And it wasn’t just existing there but had apparently been sustained for a very long time.”
The researchers sent their underwater robot SuBastian into the deep and found an ecosystem filled with anemones that look like Dr. Seuss’s Truffula Trees, along with sea spiders, icefish, octopuses. Some of the creatures that are new species, and many may only be found near Antarctica. Beyond simply being remote, the continent has been isolated for millions of years by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, which surrounds it like a moat around a castle.
An octopus rests on the seafloor 1150 meters deep in the Bellingshausen Sea.
ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
The tentacles of a solitary hydroid drift in currents 360 meters deep at an area of the seabed that was very recently covered by the George VI Ice Shelf. Solitary hydroids are related to corals, jellyfish, and anemones, but do not form colonies.
ROV SuBastian/Schmidt Ocean Institute
“Because the Bellingshausen Sea is not much explored in terms of deep-sea biodiversity, we expect many new species from the expedition. And in fact, we have already confirmed some, including snails, polychaete worms, crustaceans and even fish,” says the expedition’s co-chief scientist Patricia Esquete of the Center for Environmental and Marine Studies and the University of Aveiro in Portugal.
