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April 2008 - Bering Sea, United States —
Our research voyage to the Bering Sea has
led to the discovery of a species of sponge
new to science. Using state-of-the-art manned
submarines to explore the world's deepest
underwater canyons the new sponge was collected
in samples of never before seen life from
the Bering Sea floor.
The sponge from Pribilof Canyon in the Bering
Sea is called will be named Aaptos kanuux.
"We named this sponge 'kanuux,' after
the Unungan word for "heart,"
explained George Pletnikoff, Greenpeace
USA's Alaska Office Oceans Campaigner and
a native of the Unungan communities on the
Pribilof Islands. "These canyons are
the heart of the Bering Sea, pumping out
the nutrients that are the lifeblood of
the entire ecosystem. As long as these canyons
are at risk, so too will be the communities
that have depended on these waters for thousands
of years."
The underwater canyons
where the sponge was discovered are unique
habitats about which very little is known.
However the same area is threatened by destructive
industrial fishing methods like bottom trawling.
The announcement of
the discovery comes on the same day that
the UN meets in New York to discuss the
protection of the high seas. "We know
so little about the seas around us and far
less about the open oceans. This amazing
discovery underscores the need for the UN
to establish a global network of marine
reserves and to stop the current free-for-all
whereby habitats and species are being destroyed
before scientists have even had a chance
to give them names," said Richard Page,
an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace International,
attending the meeting.
The Greenpeace vessel
Esperanza spent eight weeks in the Bering
Sea in the summer of 2007. During some of
the first-ever in situ surveys in Zhemchug
and Pribilof canyons, scientists used submersibles
to reveal how massive bottom trawl nets
are destroying unique areas of corals and
sponges.
"This discovery
highlights how unique these canyons are
and how little is known about the deep sea,"
added said John Hocevar, senior oceans specialist
with Greenpeace USA. "Half of the 14
coral species and two-thirds of the 20 species
of sponge we documented were previously
unrecorded in the Bering Sea. Setting aside
these areas as marine reserves would reap
benefits for fishing communities as well
as the environment."
The Bering Sea is just
one area of the world's oceans that we know
very little about. But overfishing threatens
almost all every part of the oceans. We
are campaigning for the creation of a network
of marine reserves, protecting 40 percent
of the world's oceans, as the long term
solution to overfishing and the recovery
of our overexploited oceans. That's the
only way to protect everything from unknown
sponges to the great whales.
