Sea census leads to discoveries of marine wonders

From the Guardian:

A city of brittle stars off the coast of New Zealand, an Antarctic expressway where octopuses ride along in a flow of extra salty water and a carpet of tiny crustaceans on the Gulf of Mexico sea floor are among the wonders discovered by researchers compiling a massive census of marine life.

"We are still making discoveries," but researchers also are busy assembling data already collected into the big picture of life in the oceans, senior scientist Ron O'Dor said.

The fourth update of the census was released Sunday ahead of a meeting of hundreds of researchers that begins Tuesday in Valencia, Spain. More than 2,000 scientists from 82 nations are taking part in the project, which is to be completed in 2010.

A discovery that delights O'Dor is that many deep-ocean octopuses share an Antarctic origin. As the Antarctic got colder, ice increased and octopuses were forced into deeper water, he said in a telephone interview.

I guess the Antarctic got colder because of global warming.

Bizarre species amaze scientists doing census on underwater life:

Scientists meeting in Valencia, Spain on Tuesday will unveil major progress on a census of all marine life, including the discovery of strange new species, including bacteria that form four-metre high mounds, a mammoth mollusc and a "city" of brittle starfish.

There's a sea floor carpet of bugs and spiders the size of dinner plates. And there are also bizarre discoveries, such as rare deepwater snails found living on a dog's skull that had washed out to sea off the Philippines.

Astonishing Life In Ocean's Depths: Major Progress Made Towards Historic Census Of Marine Life:

Scientists discover both a “White Shark Café” and a “sturgeon playground” in the Pacific, as others explore life on a “new continent” in the mid-Atlantic, in oceanic canyons, around Earth’s deepest hot vents, and in the world’s coldest, saltiest seawater.

[...]

Scientists also find reefs deep in the Black Sea made of bacterial mats using methane (natural gas) as an energy source, the bacteria forming spectacular chimneys up to four meters high. Such reefs could contribute key insights into mechanisms controlling emissions of methane, an important greenhouse gas, from the ocean to the atmosphere.

What with cow farts and now sea bacteria gas, it's no wonder we have too much methane in the atmosphere.