Marin Science Claudia Sonea

On 26 March a team of 19 scientists went on an expedition to explore the eight Macquarie Ridge sea mountains and to investigate the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the world's biggest ocean current. The research was at geological and biological levels and led to a breaking discovery. Although everyone expected for big announcement soon after their returning on April 26, only on Monday they came with something that would bring changes in the marine field. They did not expect to come back from the expedition that targeted the chain of underwater volcanoes with discoveries on starfish, but rather with proves of climate change in that area. They filmed corals, cardinal fish, but the main attraction was a collection of millions of starfish called brittle stars. Why? Because, according to Dr. Mireille Consalvey who took part at the expedition as marine biologist the entire perception over that specific specie will be changed. The marine biologist Ashley Rowden, leader of the expedition, said that the fact that they saw the brittle stars stretching to get food in the undersea current was contradictory to their general description of the specie as covering slopes above the top of the undersea mountains. Tim O'Hara, a marine biologist, confessed that usually the brittle star is hunted by other fish, yet there was an absence of predation in that area due to the rapid current. Up to now there weren’t too many researches conducted on the brittle stars or on the world's estimated 100,000 sea mountains. They might have drawn people’s interest with such a discovery, even if I would say it was about time to say the expedition concluded with something.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080519/ap_on_sc/antarctica_tiny_starfish;_ylt=AkfQPeINF5swojRuOQXBbEWs0NUE

by Claudia Sonea for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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