THE world鈥檚 hairiest crab, a shrimp last seen 50 million years ago, a colossal school of 8 million fish and a giant single-celled organism 1 centimetre across. These are some of the findings of the 2006 Census of Marine Life, which has added 500 new species to the burgeoning list of organisms from the deep.
Neoglyphea neocaledonica 鈥� nicknamed the 鈥淛urassic shrimp鈥� 鈥� was known only from 50-million-year-old fossils until a living specimen turned up in a census net. It was not just individual creatures that were discovered, either: thanks to new sonar equipment, researchers were able to detect a school of fish the size of Manhattan swimming off the coast of New Jersey.
鈥淓ach expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean 鈥� and each vessel makes it clear that many more discoveries await marine explorers for years to come,鈥� says Fred Grassle, chair of the project鈥檚 scientific steering committee.
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The yearly census, conducted by scientists from 73 countries, was launched in 2001 and will run until 2010.
