- The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census identified 1,121 previously unknown marine species in a single year, a 54% jump in annual discovery.
- Finds from depths down to 6,575 meters include a deep-sea ghost shark, a worm living inside a glass sponge, plus corals, crabs, shrimp and sea urchins.
- The work spanned 13 expeditions and nine species discovery workshops; researchers warn many species could vanish before they are even named.
Scientists put names to 1,121 brand-new marine species in a single year – including a deep-sea “ghost shark” and a worm that lives inside a glass castle.
The trove comes from the Ocean Census, run by The Nippon Foundation-Nekton and billed as the largest effort to speed up ocean species discovery. In one year it logged 1,121 new species across 13 expeditions to some of the planet’s most remote waters – a 54% jump in annual finds.
The headliners read like a deep-sea bestiary. There’s the “ghost shark,” a chimaera from Australia’s Coral Sea whose lineage split off nearly 400 million years ago, before the dinosaurs. There’s a worm that builds its home inside a glass sponge – a “glass castle” of crystalline silica – on a volcanic seamount off Japan. Corals, crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and anemones round out the list, hauled from depths reaching 6,575 meters.
It’s not just for show. With as much as 90% of ocean species still undiscovered, the team says the data is what conservation actually runs on.
“With many species at risk of disappearing before they are even documented, we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life,” said Dr. Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census.
For years, the bottleneck wasn’t finding species – it was naming them. On average, 13.5 years pass between a species being collected and formally described, long enough that some go extinct before they’re catalogued. To fix that, the project built an open database, NOVA, that posts data within weeks.
Director Oliver Steeds put the stakes in cosmic terms. “We spend billions searching for life on Mars or going to the dark side of the moon,” he said. “Discovering the majority of life on our own planet – in our own ocean – costs a fraction of that.”
The ultimate goal: 100,000 new species. The first 1,121 are on the board.
How many new ocean species were discovered?
Scientists with the Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census identified 1,121 previously unknown marine species in a single year, a 54% jump in annual discovery and the fastest pace the project has recorded.
What new species were found?Standouts include a deep-sea “ghost shark” (a chimaera from Australia’s Coral Sea), a worm that lives inside a glass sponge on a volcanic seamount off Japan, plus new corals, crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and anemones. The finds came from depths reaching 6,575 meters.
How were so many species discovered in one year?The work spanned 13 expeditions to some of the planet’s most remote waters and nine species discovery workshops. The project also launched an open database, NOVA, that posts data within weeks, cutting an average 13.5-year lag between a species being collected and formally named.
Why does the Ocean Census matter?With as much as 90% of ocean species still undiscovered, researchers say the data is the foundation conservation runs on. As Ocean Census head of science Dr. Michelle Taylor put it: “With many species at risk of disappearing before they are even documented, we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life.” The long-term goal is 100,000 new marine species.
