New sea creatures discovered
2005-06-13 09:25
Singapore - At least 12 new species of sea creatures have been found by an international team of researchers trawling the ocean's depths off the Philippines, a Singaporean trio of experts said in a published report on Monday.
Many more species not seen in decades turned up from the several hundred prawns, crabs, lobsters and fish dredged from depths of 100m to 2 300m in the Bohol and Sulu seas, off the island of Panglao.
"The expedition has given us a complete picture of the marine biodiversity of the area," associate professor Peter Ng, director of the Raffles museum of biodiversity research at the National University of Singapore (NUS), told The Straits Times.
"This is the first time we're getting such a detailed archive, with some of the creatures being photographed live for the first time."
Ng and about 20 other researchers spent 10 days sieving through tons of mud hauled up in a net. The biggest problems were the large rocks and debris on the seabed, which broke the wooden beams in front of the nets on five occasions.
"Most of the creatures we found this time are very different from those from (an) earlier trip, even though we were virtually next door to where we were before, only deeper," Ng noted.
The researchers from Singapore were part of another international team, which found 1 200 kinds of prawns, crabs and lobsters, several dozen of which were new species, last year in the same area.
The earlier expedition concentrated on coral reefs and stopped at depths of 100m.
Large reserves of prawns were found living in the deep on the latest trip, viewed as a potential resource for fisheries.
The project was paid for by the French foreign ministry and national museum of natural history, in addition to the NUS science faculty. The research vessel was provided by the Philippines. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA