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Marine researchers have discovered 5,000 previously unknown
species of fish, worms, anemones and other creatures living
in our oceans as a result of the Census of Marine Life.
This international programme, which has involved the work
of 2,000 scientists in 80 countries, reaches its conclusion
this October when the Census
releases the final details of its findings.
People attending the American Association for the Advancement
of Science's (AAAS)
annual meeting in San Diego had an opportunity to hear about
the Census and its discoveries at a session called - One
Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, New Fish: Society needs marine biodiversity
research .
The Census was a $650m effort to seek out new life in marine
environments, one of the session participants, Shirley Pomponi
of the Florida Atlantic University said. Although it turned
up thousands of new species, “95 per cent of the ocean remains
unexplored”, she added.
She is involved in the search for novel chemicals from the
marine environment - substances that could provide new drugs.
“Mother Nature still makes the best chemicals,” she said.
These drugs can be got “from unlikely sources”.
For example, the pain killer Prialt (ziconotide) was
originally found in a marine cone snail and the sea squirt
is the unlikely source for a new anti-cancer drug, she said.
About 15,000 chemicals have been isolated over the past 30
years from marine sources, she added. Of these, about 1,000
are under active study and about 100 are currently in either
pre-clinical or early clinical trials.
Dr Jason Hall-Spencer of the University of Plymouth was another
speaker and told those attending about the rich marine life
living on sea mounts - underwater mountains where ocean currents
deliver food that supports a thriving population of sometimes
unique animals.
The oceans conceal about 50,000 sea mounts more than a kilometre
high, he said in advance of the session. “They create an oasis
of life in the open ocean,” he said - yet, just one per cent
of these sea mounts have been studied in the search for new
species.
He also talked about the significant damage being done to
cold water corals growing in deep waters as far north as the
Arctic. Bottom trawling is causing the damage and harming
these important habitats.
Source - The Irish Times
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