Six new species of marine creatures have been discovered living near hydrothermal vents beneath the Indian Ocean in an area slated for mining.
Worms, snails, a hairy-chested ‘Hoff’ crab and an unknown limpet were found by scientists from the University of Southampton using a remote-operated underwater robot.
The hydrothermal vents, which form where seawater meets magma, are home to life not found anywhere else in the Earth’s oceans.
Labelled Longqi, the springs, 2,000km southeast of Madagascar and 2.8km deep, have been earmarked for future seabed mining for mineral deposits.
The research team explored an area the size of a football stadium on the ocean floor, pinpointing the locations of more than a dozen mineral spires known as ‘vent chimneys’.
Dr Jon Copley, who led the research, said: “We can be certain that the new species we've found also live elsewhere in the southwest Indian Ocean, as they will have migrated here from other sites, but at the moment no-one really knows where, or how well-connected their populations are with those at Longqi.
“Our results highlight the need to explore other hydrothermal vents in the southwest Indian Ocean and investigate the connectivity of their populations, before any impacts from mineral exploration activities and future deep-sea mining can be assessed.”
“Finding these two species at Longqi shows that some vent animals may be more widely distributed across the oceans than we realised,” added Dr Copley.
More than 400 new animal species have been discovered living around hydrothermal vents since 1977.
