Terrifying Deep-Sea Creatures Found Near Coco Islands

Scientists searching the unexplored waters of the Indian Ocean near an isolated set of Australian islands find an abundance of stunning aquatic life.

Deep-Sea Discovery

The Indian Ocean's undiscovered seas have just been explored by a shipload of scientists, who surveyed enormous underwater mountains and came across various deep-sea creatures with velvety black skin and jaws full of needle-sharp, crystalline teeth.

Australian territory more than 600 miles off the coast of Sumatra, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, was the subject of the team's research into the seas. The expedition's lead scientist, Dr. Tim O'Hara of the Museum Victoria Research Institute, describes the area as "simply a completely blank slate."

The president of the Deep-Sea Biology Society and professor at the University of Essex, Dr. Michelle Taylor, who wasn't part of the trip, says that the region of the planet is so little investigated.

Due to its remoteness, the Indian Ocean receives few research missions. The journey to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on the research vessel Investigator, run by Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, took the team six days from Darwin in the Northern Territory of Australia.

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Stars of the Show

Fish are the true stars of the show, according to O'Hara, an c in sinvertebrates. Bioluminescent organs on blind eels, tripod fish, hatchetfish, dragonfish, and lures protrude from their heads. They are very exceptional.

The deep-sea batfish stood out among the enormous diversity of species they discovered. It has two short fins as its legs and lies on the seafloor like an elaborate pancake. In an apparent attempt to fool animals into believing it is a delectable worm, it wiggles a tiny lure tucked into a hollow on its nose.

They saw a tribute spiderfish, which utilizes its long bottom fins as stilts to float above the seafloor and grab drifting food. They discovered a previously undiscovered blind eel with translucent, jelly-like skin at a depth of 5,000 meters. They also came across stoplight loose jaws, a species of dragonfish with enormous, double-hinged jaws and the peculiar habit of snooping on other creatures using red bioluminescent light, a color that most deep-sea organisms are unable to perceive.

An abyssal plain sample net pulled through it produced several prehistoric shark teeth. O'Hara says, "They were enormous sharks that existed millions of years ago." Experts in fossils believe these originated from "megalodon-like creatures" based on pictures. More information will become available once they access the teeth, which are now shipped to museums with the rest of the artifacts.

The team mapped the deep seafloor in 3D detail using high-resolution sonar and found several previously unknown smaller seamounts.

Deep seamounts serve as important ocean mixing structures and rich homes for corals, sponges, and other fauna. The sides of seamounts are swept up by powerful currents that carry essential nutrients to the top. They mix water at various levels, which is why some people refer to them as the stirring rods of the oceans, claims O'Hara.

One goal of the trip to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands was to gather baseline data to aid in managing and protecting the marine park that will be established there in March 2022 in conjunction with the marine park on nearby Christmas Island, which the team visited last year.

Studying the Area

O'Hara claims that scientists prospected for seafloor minerals and determined they weren't worth exploitation; therefore, the region is not endangered by deep-sea mining. The scientists decided that plastic contamination was the greatest danger. He claims you can still dredge up plastics at four kilometers below the surface. We observed it in our collections, as well as in the water and on top of the water.

It will take years for scientists to go through all the specimens the expedition brought back, but according to O'Hara, between 10% and 30% of them will represent species that have never been studied before. Taylor expresses her excitement about what new scientific findings may be made in the future.

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