View a gallery of the incredible creatures revealed by the survey.
The 2006 Census of Marine Life is in, and this year鈥檚 trawl includes scores of weird and wonderful creatures brought back from the deep.
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The latest census has revealed 500 new species. One is the shrimp-like Phronima. It was found 5000 metres below the surface of the Sargasso Sea, along with hundreds of related species. All were eating each other and the organic matter that falls from the surface waters in drifts of 鈥渕arine snow鈥�.
Another find is the Neoglyphea neocaledonica 鈥� nicknamed the 鈥淛urassic shrimp鈥� by its discoverers. It was thought to have disappeared 50 million years ago.
And it was not just individual creatures that caught the eyes of the researchers. Thanks to a new sensor, they also spotted a colossal school of 8 million fish off the coast of New Jersey, US. The shoal was the size of Manhattan Island in New York City.
The researchers also shot deep-sea video, for example in the North Pacific and North Atlantic. It features the Pompeii worm, seen in shimmering hot waters 鈥� it is thought to be the most heat-resistant creature on Earth. .
2006 is the census鈥檚 sixth year of existence and will run until 2008. The results will then be analysed during 2009 and 2010. The researchers intend the end result to be a full description of what lived, lives and will live in the oceans.
鈥淓ach expedition reveals new marvels of the ocean 鈥� and with the return of each vessel it is increasingly 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.
In 2006, the 2000 researchers from 80 countries led 19 marine expeditions, with a 20th underway in the Antarctic. They also used satellites to track more than 20 species including sharks, sea lions, albatross and squid.
