Scientists exploring the seafloor of Antarctica have suddenly discovered a colony of notothenioid icefish “about a third the size of London”. The colony is said to cover an area of at least 240 square kilometers. It includes approximately 60 million active nests. Fish biomass in this case is more than 60 thousand tons.
Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, said several dozen nests have been spotted elsewhere in Antarctica, but this find is much larger.
The discovery was made by a team of biologists during routine data collection 1.5-2.5 meters above the seabed of the southern Weddell Sea. Prior to this discovery, the largest colony found contained only 60 nests. According to The Guardian, the study was published in the journal Current Biology.
Cameras will now monitor the ecosystem for the next two years. This will help determine how it works and how it interacts with other ecosystems. In April 2022, the researchers will return to the region. They intend to survey the surrounding waters and see if the fish are breeding again in the same nests.
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