Oct 5, 2010 14:59 GMT  ·  By

After more than a decade of study, researchers announce that the Census of Marine Life (CML), the most complete initiative of learning more of the species living in Earth's oceans, has finally ended.

The endeavor, which reunited 2,700 scientists from 80 nations, was the most thorough investigation into the oceans ever conducted anywhere in the world.

The main conclusion that the CML drew from the research is that the planetary ocean is richer in species, more interconnected, and more impacted by human factors than previously thought. In the 10 years experts spent in the water, they discovered thousands of new animal species, which they proceeded to catalog and classify in new atlases that will improve our knowledge of the planet.

The main conclusions of the $650 million investigation were announced on October 4 in London, at a press conference. “It's been a machine for discovery,” says of the endeavor Alfred P. Sloane Foundation expert Jesse Ausubel,

He was one of the main proponents for the investigation back in 2000. The expert said that, of the 6,000 potentially new species that were discovered, about 1,200 got completed formal descriptions.

The data that were collected by this research are bound to keep scientists busy for years to come, especially in determining relations underlying the vast network of interconnections that exists in the oceans.

Some 540 expeditions were carried over the years, during which thousands of samples were collected. Most of these still await closer examination, and they will undoubtedly provide additional insight into the way life in the ocean is set up.

“The really exciting thing is that for every species we know about, we think there are three or four that we don't know about,” explains scientist Paul Snelgrove.

He is a participant in the CML, and is based at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, in St. John's, Canada, Our Amazing Planet reports.

But some of the conclusions of the CML were disturbing to say the least. “The abundance of some of the largest animals in the oceans – tuna, sharks, whales – has been depleted by about 90 percent, on average,” reveals Boris Worms.

He is a scientist at the Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The main conclusion of the research is that the species living in the ocean are still largely unprotected, and prone to extinction.

“the concept of marine protection is still quite young. I think it's very obvious that a complete revision of our thinking about zoning of the oceans needs to go on,” says Ausubel.

"We live in a world of very rapid change. We want to monitor [overfishing, light pollution, acidification, sound polution], and we can't do any of that in the absence of baselines,” he goes on to say.

“So what we hope the census has done is create the first baseline and a framework,” the expert concludes.