Scientists on a German submarine discovered what they believe is the largest fish nursery in the world, with approximately 60 million icefish nests, at the bottom of the Weddell Sea in Antarctica.
Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute was monitoring the floor of the Weddell Sea when his graduate assistant, Lilian Bohringer, spotted the nests. Using a 1-ton camera, Bohringer said she could see a new nest every 10 inches, covering an area of 93 square miles, according to their research published Jan. 13 in Current Biology.
“The camera was moving [across the seafloor], and it just didn’t stop. They were everywhere,” Bohringer said.
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A parent guarded each nest of approximately 1,700 eggs, the first home of the notothenioid icefish, a white-blooded fish that resides in chilly waters. The term “white-blooded” refers to the fish’s lack of hemoglobin and red blood cells. Purser said the icefish tend to live in groups, though they have never seen anything near this size.
“The most ever seen before was 40 nests or something like that,” Purser said.
The crew expected to find the icefish when they discovered an area of water that was 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the surrounding ocean. Inside the warmer water, the crew detected zooplankton, which the icefish eat. Alongside the bowl-like nests were also carcasses of icefish, likely eaten by Weddell seals.
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The crew left two cameras on the seafloor to monitor and learn more about the fish’s ecosystem. Purser said he plans to return to the Weddell Sea in April.
