14 DAY TRIAL // More and more in new investigations, underwater mountains are beginning to distinguish themselves as hot spots for species diversity and evolution. Though not many people know they exist, these formations may number more than 100,000 throughout the world, with a height of over 1,000 meters.
Other thousands of underwater mounds, that measure less than one kilometer in altitude, may also dot the oceans' floors. Their very existence makes sense when considering that 75 percent of our planet's surface is covered in water.
One of the reasons we know about the fact these mountains harbor immense diversity is because fishing companies found them. They are in desperate need of new supply grounds.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), more than 66 percent of all fishing grounds in the worlds are overexploited or already depleted. Fishing companies therefore need to find their supplies elsewhere.
As a result, they discovered methods of efficiently harvesting fish from the open ocean, and are now turning their attention to hunting grounds around mountains.
During the Global Census of Marine Life (CML) on Seamounts, researchers found that these structures had been largely left unstudied, and determined that countless new species could be identified around them. They investigators even managed to find a few new animals in routine searches.
Even with the limited number of studies on underwater mountains, scientists know that the delicate ecosystems these areas house are extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation and to bottom trawling fishing, which is a very destructive technique.
The Seamounts Project was started in 2009 to develop an ecosystem approach to fisheries management in the southern Indian Ocean. The initiative was started by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Our World reports.
A group of researchers investigated six mountains in the Southwest Indian Ocean Ridge in November 2009, during a six-week scientific expedition. The team collected samples, oceanographic and acoustic data, as well as information about the animals and birds of the area.
“After familiarizing themselves with the laboratory facilities, participants eagerly fell in behind their microscopes and began working through intimidating rows of jars containing fishes, squids, zooplankton and other interesting creatures,” the project blog says.
“Many specimens look similar to each other and scientists have to use elaborate morphological features, such as muscle orientation and gut length, to differentiate between them,” it adds.
“The true aim of our work is to observe, measure, count and ultimately understand the seamount ecosystems of the southern Indian Ocean so that we can provide a sound scientific basis for their management and conservation,” explains scientist Kirsty Kemp.
“Ideally this will generate support and agreement between policy-makers and stakeholders (fishers, miners) for the establishment of Marine Protected Areas where no exploitation activity is undertaken,” she goes on to say.
“To ensure that we designate the correct areas as protected we need to understand where current populations are spawning, their migration patterns, the timing of their reproduction, the connectivity (genetic and otherwise) between existing populations, and how they depend upon each other for survival,” the expert concludes.