In a surprising new discovery, scientists have discovered a colony of fish beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. The number is extraordinarily large.
The colony consisted of about 60 million fish of the icefish species or its scientific name Neopagetopsis ionah. This fish is quite strange because its skull is transparent and besides that, its blood is likewise.
This colony of millions of icefish was first discovered by the German Antarctic research vessel, Polarstern. They surveyed the ocean floor for half a kilometer by lowering the camera system.
The scientist who was on the ship observed the fish nests that were spread over such a large area. "We then watched fish nest after fish nest for a full 4 hours and during that time, we studied an area of about 6 kilometers on the bottom of the Antarctic ocean," said Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven.
In follow-up research, it turned out that the colony was 240 square kilometers wide. Most of the icefish nests are guarded by an adult fish each containing approximately 1,735 eggs. This discovery is surprising because there is such a large population of living things beneath Antarctica.
This is the appearance of the ship from Germany that found the largest fish colony in the world.
“I've never seen anything like this in my 15 years as an ocean researcher. After that, we contacted experts who know this kind of fish. They say this fish is quite unique,” added Purser.
"This is really a surprising discovery, as well as significant. The amount of biomass there is staggering,” said John Postlethait, professor of biology at the University of Oregon.
The ship has been researching Antarctica since the 1980s.
There are about 2,000 seals in the area which probably make the icefish one of their diets.