Scientists Complete
Survey Of Indian Ocean
World's
leading maritime experts have successfully completed a survey of
the Indian Ocean ridge and found a rich collection of data and
specimen.
Scientists at the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN), Port Elizabeth, South Africa, reported that the data
included some new marine creatures and a whole new understanding
of seamount ecosystems.
IUCN and its scientific partners reported that the feat was
achieved after six weeks of study of the Seamounts of the Indian
Ocean with the aim of improving knowledge of Seamounts across
the southwest Indian Ocean ridge.
Habitat
Seamounts, underwater mountains of volcanic and tectonic
origin, are known to be hotspots of biodiversity and attract a
range of oceanic predators, including seabirds, whales and
sharks.
They also attract deepwater fisheries because they host many
species of commercial interest, such as orange roughy and
alfonsino, which are known to be very vulnerable to
over-exploitation.
Benefits
The results of the research cruise are not only of interest
to scientists, they will also help to improve the conservation
and management of the marine resources of the Indian Ocean.
’’I am extremely pleased with the data that we have collected
and the number of species we have encountered,’’ Dr Alex David
Rogers, Chief Scientist of the cruise and senior research fellow
at the Zoological Society of London said.
"The diversity of species that we sampled is higher than I would
have expected. Some species have been recorded for the first
time in the region and we hope to have found some species new to
science.’’ He said.
’’ It was also very interesting to discover that the six
Seamounts we surveyed are very different from each other and I
believe our findings will certainly improve global knowledge of
seamount ecosystems,’’ he added.
Travel scope
Leaving from union Island on November 12, the research ship
travelled 8,000km in 40 days to study five Seamounts on the
southwest Indian Ocean Ridge and one Seamount further north on
Walters Shoal, south of Madagascar.
All features were located in waters beyond national
jurisdictions, the high seas, at two to three days sailing from
the nearest land.
Two of them had been set
aside on a voluntary basis as protected areas by the Southern
Indian Ocean Deep Sea Fishers Association, to allow for
comparison between fished and unfished Seamounts.
NAN/Yinka
