It sank in the North Sea almost 700 years ago, ravaged by rough weather.

But scientists are searching for what’s left of Ravenser Odd, a short-lived medieval town on an island in the Humber estuary.

Described as ‘Yorkshire’s Atlantis’, the important coastal town – which is the subject of a new exhibition in Hull – flourished in the late 13th century.

It lay just west of Spurn Point, the very tip of the sinuous peninsula that separates the North Sea and the Humber Estuary.

Since 2021, two Hull academics have been conducting research into the city’s remains on the seabed using high-resolution seabed mapping equipment.

One of them is Dr Steve Simmons, a lecturer in energy and environment at the University of Hull, who said Ravenser Odd was once a ‘prosperous settlement’.

They hope to recover any remnants of the city, such as the foundations of the sea wall and the harbour, but so far they have had no success.

“Despite its relative importance in 1299, Ravenser Odd is largely forgotten today – because it disappeared, swallowed up by the North Sea,” said Dr. Simmons in an article for The conversation.

“Conditions in the estuary make it difficult to search for traces of the lost city.”

Both Ravenser Odd and its neighbor, Hull, received their charters from Edward I on the same day: April 1, 1299.

The charter made Ravenser Odd a recognized municipality and exempted merchants from certain taxes.

This allowed the city to build its own court, prison and chapel.

At its peak it had around 100 houses and a thriving market – and was an even more important port than Hull further up the Humber.

Within about half a century, the city’s fortunes faded.

‘By the mid-14th century, the storms and strong tidal currents of the North Sea began to take their toll on the settlement,’ said Dr Simmons.

‘A devastating blow was dealt in 1362 by the storm surge of the Sint-Marcellus flood, after which the city began to be abandoned.’

A historical map shows that other islands west of the Spurn Peninsula were also lost, with names such as Orwithfleet and Sunthorpe, but Ravenser Odd was the largest.

As a result of coastal erosion, it is not likely that entire islands will be weakened and lost over time, Dr. Simmons warns.

The Holderness coastline, north of the Spurn Peninsula, is the fastest eroding coastline in Europe.

The crumbling cliffs of soft boulder clay are retreating at an average rate of 2 meters per year.

Ravenser Odd is the subject of a new exhibition at the Hull History Center running until Thursday 30 May.

It contains important documents, including maps of medieval Hull and the original charters of Hull and Ravenser Odd, borrowed from the National Archives.

“Despite its proximity to Hull, the story of Ravenser Odd is relatively unknown,” says councilor Rob Pritchard, portfolio holder for Leisure and Culture.

‘An understanding of the Ravenser story and its implications for the wider Humber will enable Hull people to reflect on their own 800 years of maritime history and the opportunities to explore themes around Hull’s own development.

‘This exhibition will tell the story in many different ways and capture the imagination of residents, children and young people.’

While there is little doubt based on contemporary evidence that Ravenser Odd existed, the same cannot be said about Atlantis to which it is being compared.

It is said that the so-called ancient city was destroyed and submerged under the Atlantic Ocean, but that is not the case it is generally believed to have been invented by the Greek philosopher Plato.

Last year, another research team revealed that they had found the German equivalent of Atlantis: the city of Rungholt, which was sunk by a storm in 1362.

While most travelers hope to reach ancient sites or historical monuments, one British explorer tries to get as far away from them as possible.

Chris Brown hopes to reach Point Nemo – the most remote place on Earth and the graveyard for hundreds of pieces of space junk.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Point Nemo is so far from any land that the nearest humans are on the International Space Station 250 miles (408 km) above Earth.

If successful, the 62-year-old entrepreneur from Harrogate will become the first Briton to complete a specific expedition to the point.

‘I’m going to try to get in the water if at all possible. “I also expect to open a bottle of bubbly when I get there,” he said.

Mr Brown and his son Mika, 32, set sail aboard the chartered expedition yacht Hanse Explorer from Puerto Montt, Chile, on March 12.

The pair hope to reach Point Nemo on March 20 or 21 if all goes according to plan.

Although Mr Brown says he had considered using a racing yacht to get to the point as quickly as possible, he ultimately opted for the safer option of a more robust vessel.

The luxury yacht usually makes tourist expeditions to Antarctica and is said to pass quite close to Point Nemo.

Mr Brown said that ‘after some negotiation the owners agreed to our little detour.’

The crew’s destination is the so-called Oceanic Pole of Inaccessibility, meaning it is the furthest point from land.

From Point Nemo, the nearest land is Ducie Island, part of the Pitcairn Islands, which is 2,688 kilometers away.

Besides a few small islands, the nearest major inhabited areas are Wellington, New Zealand and Concepción, Chile, both of which are over 2,500 miles away.

This part of the world is so remote that it has become the most popular place for international space agencies to drop falling space debris.

Since 1971, more than 260 pieces of space debris have found their final resting place in the waters around Point Nemo, including Russia’s Mir space station.

Within the next decade, this remote part of the Pacific Ocean will also be the site of the International Space Station’s downing.

When the ISS lands at Point Nemo, it will actually be seven times further from any human settlement than it is in orbit.

The point has been known since 1992, when a research engineer calculated the furthest point for landing, taking into account the Earth’s ellipsoid shape.

Since its discovery, several ships have approached the point, including Ocean Race participants traveling between Auckland, New Zealand and Itajaí, Brazil.

However, maritime experts have stated that ‘it is possible that no human ever passed through the specific coordinates’.

Nevertheless, Mr Brown appears undeterred by the extreme remoteness of the site.

Ultimately, he hopes to become the first person to reach all eight continental poles of inaccessibility on Earth.

These are the points on each continent that are furthest from any ocean, making them among the most remote places on Earth.

Mr Brown has already reached five of the eight, reaching the poles in Antarctica, Oceania, Africa, North America and South America.

“I don’t consider this as dangerous as my expeditions to Africa or Antarctica,” he said.

‘The obvious danger is that you are miles from anywhere at sea, and you are a long way from any of the shipping lanes, so if there was a problem with the boat help would take a long time to wait. ‘

During the expedition to the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility, Mr Brown and his son were briefly stranded in temperatures of -28°C after their plane broke down.

But while Mr. Brown may be adventurous, he also seems to have a keen sense of danger.

Last year he came to media attention after it was revealed that he had turned down a spot on the ill-fated submarine expedition to the Titanic.

Mr Brown said he even paid a deposit for a seat on the OceanGate ship.

However, he pulled out of the trip after discovering the submarine would be controlled with games console controllers saying it looked ‘sloppy’.

Mr Brown plans to collect water samples at Point Nemo to test the density of microplastics on their way to the world’s most remote oceans.

In addition to being a dumping ground for space debris, Point Nemo is located in a complex network of circular currents that trap large amounts of waste.

The South Pacific Gyre in which Point Nemo is located is a confluence of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the Humboldt Current, and the West Wind Drift.

As a result, this region of the Pacific Ocean has become something of an oceanic garbage dump.

Fortunately, this area may also be one of the least biologically active regions of the world’s oceans.

In the 4,000 meter deep waters it is so devoid of nutrients that life can hardly exist.

Scientists have only discovered bacteria and small crabs living in the sea vents on the ocean floor near the point.

Millions of bizarre blob-like creatures have washed up on West Coast beaches in recent years due to warming waters caused by climate change.

The gelatinous, transparent mases are found along the coasts of Northern California and Oregon, and sometimes as far away as Alaska, but typically live in warm seas – and at great depths.

Now scientists from Oregon State University have discovered that these pyrosomes or ‘sea pickles’ are appearing en masse as a result of a major marine heat wave that began in 2013 – marking the first time the animals have been seen in 25 years.

Since the proliferation of pyrosomes in the Pacific Ocean, they have also consumed most of the energy in the sea, reducing the number of salmon and seabirds.

Pyrosomes feed on phytoplankton, which form the basis of marine food webs that provide food for a wide range of marine animals, but growing numbers of sea pickles mean there are not enough available.

These creatures can grow from just a few centimeters to up to 20 meters in length and resemble a pink tube with stiff bumps covering the body.

Pyrosomes are colonies of thousands of animals called zooids that form in a hollow tube that can grow large enough for a human to fit through.

The sea creatures have a gene called luciferase that produces light and when it reacts with a luminous chemical, it sends the light up and down the tube, allowing it to see several meters in front of it.

They can also reproduce through asexual reproduction – effectively cloning themselves – or they can reproduce with a sexual partner.

The researchers looked at data from 80 groups of creatures, three feeding pools, five waste pools and two fisheries collected since 2014.

“Pyrosomes consume animals at the base of the food web and conserve that energy,” said Lisa Crozier, research scientist at NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center and co-author of the paper.

“They take energy out of the system that predators need,” she added.

According to the study, pyrosomes have long been considered “trophic dead ends” because they cannot serve as an energy source for other species, and how nutritious they are for other creatures that have consumed them in recent years remains unclear.

“That has an impact on the entire ecosystem… the pyrosome consumes energy that would normally have passed through multiple prey before ultimately ending up in a salmon,” study co-author Dylan Gomes said. The Seattle Times.

Pyrosomes are not consumed as often as other creatures, such as jellyfish, and the study suggests that this “may be because they are harder to digest, offer lower energy content, or remain new to the food web so predators have not yet responded.”

The 2013 marine heat wave, known as ‘the Blob’, increased water temperatures, allowing pyrosomes to thrive, while some fisheries closed as salmon, cod and Dungeness crab populations declined.

Scientists have speculated whether rising temperatures could be to blame for animals’ metabolisms increasing in warmer water, causing them to use more energy.

“You can think of it as more being consumed for the same amount of seafood produced,” Gomes said NewScientist.

Gomes said the study does not take into account factors that could affect declining marine life, such as declining oxygen levels caused by warming waters.

However, he added: ‘It is a first attempt to understand how marine heat waves are changing the ecosystems of the northeast Pacific Ocean.’

The team also compared other marine animals to the pyrosomes and found that they benefited most from the ecosystem, while other species such as jellyfish, cod, sardines, sea snails and other creatures missed out, causing their populations to decline.

While other creatures such as salmon pass on their energy source to feed larger animals, the research suggests this is not the case for pyrosomes, where 98 percent of their waste and residue accumulate in the seabed – so-called waste pools.

The academia was engulfed in scandal this week after it emerged that research articles in dozens of scientific journals were written by AI.

An investigation found more than 100 articles likely written, at least in part, by ChatGPT.

These articles have slipped through the cracks due to lax or non-existent peer-review processes at for-profit journals, fueling fears that human scientific knowledge is rapidly being infiltrated by low-quality computer-generated garbage.

Many of these articles are published in obscure scientific journals, but news of this type of scientific fraud damages public trust in science, many scientists agree. Even before AI-generated text appeared in scientific articles, so-called “paper mills” have been churning out low-quality and even plagiarized articles for years.

The influence of AI on research papers was exposed by a new report from the tech journalism site 404 Media.

115 results were found for ‘From my last knowledge update’ in Google Scholar, Google’s search tool for academic articles. This phrase, which returned 188 results as of Tuesday, is often used by the bot to tell users how current the information is.

404 Media reported that the dates in the newspapers containing the phrase matched the dates of actual ChatGPT knowledge updates.

The articles covered topics such as spinal injuries, battery technologies, rural medicine, bacterial infections, cryptocurrency, child welfare, and even artificial intelligence.

Many of the journals that publish these fraudulent articles rake in money and charge authors processing fees to publish their articles that contain no new ideas.

A few of the search results are not intended to fool anyone, and are in fact about the pitfalls of using ChatGPT as a research tool.

‘Don’t Trust ChatGPT: A Case Study of a Defective Research Tool’ is the title of such an article.

Removing results with ‘ChatGPT’ in them still yields as many as 135 articles that contain a strange phrase.

Some of these articles seem legitimate, while others are barely understandable: ‘Global Education Education and International Education Advocacy’ is one such example of unreadable titles.

The phrase even appears in a paper about how AI systems can be made more transparent and explainable.

Bellingcat researcher Kolina Koltai Posted a screenshot of an academic article about

Besides the fact that using ChatGPT is easy, professional pressure is a major reason this happens.

Academic researchers face enormous pressure from their universities to publish articles because they are one of the main ways scientists are judged when it comes time to get a new job or promotion.

This challenge is so common that it has an ominous expression: “publish or perish.”

And for those who want to take the easy way out, there are plenty of scientific journals more than willing to accommodate.

Normally, the publication process for a renowned academic journal is lengthy, requiring peer review by other scientists, often followed by multiple rounds of revisions.

Scientists may even need to conduct additional experiments to fulfill requests from journal editors and reviewers.

This process can take months or even years, depending on what changes are needed.

But overall, the end result is a solid piece of work that has been carefully researched, polished and perfected.

That’s not the case with these “paper mills” that accept almost any submission – as long as the author also pays the publishing costs.

For example, the International Journal of New Media Studies published two different articles with the telling phrase: “As of my last knowledge update.”

The journal claims to conduct peer review and even has a page dedicated to describing the process.

“The practice of peer review is to ensure that only good science is published,” reads the introduction to the page on the magazine’s website.

‘It is an objective process that is at the heart of good scientific publishing and is carried out by all renowned scientific journals.’

Peer review involves sending a manuscript to several experts – usually three – who read the article carefully and express their criticism. Even without major revisions, this process takes time, because reviewers are working scientists who must make time in their schedules to read the article.

Still, the journal promises that articles will be published one to two days after submission.

DailyMail.com has contacted the magazine’s editors about its policy on AI-generated submissions.

The International Journal of New Media Studies charges authors $50 to publish an article, another $20 to assign the article a DOI number (used for online indexing), and another $50 to obtain a hard copy of it receive a magazine.

This magazine is a striking example of this, but not unique.

Searching for ‘From my last knowledge update’ will bring up a huge list of articles published in a variety of journals, on topics as diverse as materials science, youth wellbeing and quantum physics.

It’s no secret that paper mills produce low-quality paper for a fee.

But as AI chatbot tools become easier to use and more widely available, these low-value papers only seem to become more plentiful.

Some restaurants may promise an extraordinary experience, but none can deliver in this way.

Two-Michelin star chef Rasmus Munk, from Alchemist in Copenhagen, has announced that he will offer guests the chance to have a meal at the edge of space.

Next year, six lucky – and extremely wealthy – tourists will get the chance to fly in a ‘space balloon’ 3.5 kilometers above sea level.

During the six-hour experience, each diner will be served dishes inspired by the role of space exploration.

But at an astronomical price of $495,000 (£388,535) per ticket, this could be a high price to pay for a restaurant with (literally) no atmosphere.

The culinary expedition takes place aboard Space Perspective’s Neptune spaceship.

Despite its name, this spacecraft is not actually a spaceship, but rather a pressurized capsule suspended beneath a huge hydrogen balloon.

Without rockets or jet engines, the flight should be so gentle that anyone can participate without any training.

The balloon is planned to take off from Florida at a fairly gentle speed of 12 miles per hour.

At the highest point, guests can look down on Earth through the largest window ever launched into space.

According to Mr Munk, dinner will be served as guests watch the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth.

Importantly, he notes that the craft will not enter microgravity during the flight, so guests and food will not experience any weightlessness.

Mr Monk said: ‘In this experience, I want to highlight food as a common thread in our human existence, and it will be truly meaningful to serve it while gazing at the curvature of the Earth.

“I am honored to be part of what I believe will be a once-in-a-lifetime, transformative experience.”

The company has kept the details of the menu vague, aside from the caveat that they can’t cook with an open flame.

Given how small the capsule is, it’s not clear if the food will actually be prepared on the vessel or if it will simply be served there.

But if it’s anything like previous menus at Alchemist, the dinner will undoubtedly feature a host of new techniques.

Previous menu items, or “impressions” as the restaurant calls them, have included carpenter ants in candy, a cod eye gel and a dessert served in a silicone cup.

In 2010, the restaurant even created a sakura blossom dish for the Japanese space agency.

While it’s obviously extremely decent, the mission to dine six people in space is also keen to promote its socially conscious reputation.

Guests will ascend to the edge of space on the world’s first ‘carbon neutral spaceship’.

All proceeds will be donated to the Space Prize Foundation, a charity committed to improving the role of women within the space industry.

Alchemist also suggests that the experience of looking down on everyone on Earth can be “a sobering reminder that our fates are intertwined.”

Roman Chiporukha, founder of SpaceVIP, which organizes the experience, said: ‘This maiden voyage is just the first chapter in SpaceVIP’s mission to harness the transformative power of space travel to elevate human consciousness and shape the course of our collective evolution to give.’

The effect of looking at Earth from space, also called the overview effect, is a psychological phenomenon reported by some astronauts upon reaching space.

Those who visit space sometimes report feeling a change in consciousness or a connection to the fragility of the Earth.

In its statement, Alchemist writes that seeing Earth from space “has the power to create a cognitive shift and inspire a greater appreciation for Earth and a deep connection with humanity as a whole.”

But whether showing people the Earth while they enjoy a half-million-dollar dinner will actually break down the barriers that divide us remains to be seen.

Currently, Space Perspectives has yet to launch its first commercial flights, but it hopes to do so before the end of the year.

If successful, the company could join a number of other companies vying to provide the first wave of space tourism.

• American researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 people

By Roger Dobson

Published: 8:16 PM EDT, March 16, 2024 | Updated: 9:56 PM EDT, March 16, 2024

• Revelers can enjoy a sweeter tasting pint while listening to Enya or The Corrs
• Anyone who likes bitter beer should listen to The Irish Rovers and Van Morrison

By Chris Pollard for the Daily Mail

Published: 8:25 AM EDT, March 15, 2024 | Updated: 1:09 PM EDT, March 15, 2024

It looks like an alien spaceship, or a new galaxy that has suddenly appeared in the sky.

But a mysterious blue spiral that appeared in the middle of the Northern Lights was actually left behind by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Experts say the spiral shape appeared when SpaceX’s rocket blew off unnecessary fuel during its long descent into the ocean.

When the rocket fuel was ejected, it froze and crystallized in the shape of a spiral, which was then illuminated by the sun.

Photographers in Iceland and Norway captured the bizarre, unnatural phenomenon, which has an eerie, UFO-like appearance.

SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Sunday, March 4 at 5:05 PM ET (10:05 PM GMT).

It carried 53 small satellites into orbit, a mission known as Transporter-10.

As the scrapped second stage of the rocket passed over the Barents Sea in the Arctic Ocean, it performed a ‘de-orbit burn’: its engines were fired to allow it to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.

As it spun, the exhaust turned into a spectacular spiral, catching the light of the sun.

Those still awake in Northern Europe in the early hours of March 5 were there to witness the strange sight.

Photographer Bettina Begtoft captured the appearance in Norway with the Barents Sea in the foreground.

“I noticed it at 2:02 a.m. local time,” Begtoft said spaceweather.com.

‘To the naked eye it looked white, but my Nikon D750 camera showed the beautiful blue color.’

Another image of the same SpaceX spiral was captured at Shang Yang in the town of Akureyri, northern Iceland.

“I caught this on March 5 around 1 a.m. local time in Akureyri,” Yang said.

“It looked otherworldly against the northern lights.”

This isn’t the first time SpaceX has tricked observers into thinking UFOs might be present.

In January last year, the company left a blue-tinged spiral over Maunakea, Hawaii, after launching a new satellite.

It was captured on camera by the Hawaiian Subaru Telescope and grew from a small dot into a spiral, gradually expanding and fading.

And in June 2022, a new blue spiral across New Zealand’s skies confused onlookers who thought it was of extraterrestrial origin.

The spiraling gas plume lit up the sky over Nelson, a city on the tip of New Zealand’s South Island, and traveled 750 kilometers south to Stewart Island.

These spirals are a “routine byproduct” of SpaceX operations and are common over the Pacific Ocean, according to spaceweather.com.

Olivier Staiger, an independent astronomer based in Switzerland, managed to predict that the March 5 SpaceX spiral would occur.

He now thinks another one will occur in October during SpaceX’s Transporter-12 mission, and that it could be accompanied by more auroras and meteor showers.

There are two major meteor showers in October – the Draconids (October 8-9) and the Orionids (October 21-22) – that could coincide with Transporter-12.

In addition, a comet named Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is expected to peak and become visible from Earth in September or October 2024.

Whether it’s splashing flowers or preparing a delicious meal, everyone has their own way of impressing a potential partner.

But for these house-proud penguins, it’s all about the chicest bachelor pad.

As mating season approaches, Edinburgh Zoo’s gentoo penguins are busy getting their nests in good condition.

Using nesting rings and a collection of pebbles provided by the zookeepers, male penguins carefully selected the perfect stones to lure a loved one.

But there can be trouble in paradise, as penguins often skimp to get the best stones for themselves.

Edinburgh Zoo is home to the largest outdoor penguin pool in Europe with three different species and more than 100 individuals.

A large number of these are gentoo penguins, a small species native to Antarctica.

In the wild, these characterful birds make their nests on the rocky shores, where they collect the smooth pebbles to build nests.

And just like people, these penguins also propose by giving each other a nice shiny stone.

Male penguins select the smoothest pebble from their nest to present to their potential mate.

When she thinks the offering is good enough, the female takes the stone and places it on the nest.

The couple then work together to build a nest, in which the female lays two spherical eggs.

Gentoo penguins are devoted parents and often form long-lasting bonds.

During the incubation period of 33 to 35 days, the parents take turns keeping the egg warm while the others look for food.

This year the first eggs should be laid in April and we should see the first chicks hatch in May.

After about three to four months, these chicks are old enough to leave the nest and join a large nursery with other chicks, where they learn to swim and eat.

To help the penguins find their perfect mate, Edinburgh Zoo has provided the penguins with a collection of painted pebbles this year.

The rocks were painted by children supported by Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People.

But these pebbles are so important to the males’ chances of finding a mate that it sometimes leads to arguments.

Materials for building nests can be difficult to find on the frozen coastlines of Antarctica.

Some penguins even dive to the seabed to find pebbles, meaning it can take days, if not weeks, to build the right nest.

Faced with this daunting task, some penguins will turn to a life of crime and try to steal the best pebbles from their rivals’ nests.

Criminal couples may even try to hijack another couple’s nest altogether if it is left unattended for too long.

But this isn’t just a matter of aesthetic choices or neighborly jealousy.

Without twigs, branches or leaves to build their nests from, pebbles are all the gentoo penguins can use to keep their eggs safe.

A sturdy base of pebbles keeps the egg above the icy ground and snow so it can survive incubation.

Choosing the right pebbles will allow water or snow to drain from the nest instead of accumulating on the surface.

This means that building a good, sturdy nest can be the difference between successfully raising a chick or the egg not hatching.

So while the eggs are unlikely to freeze in the Scottish spring, arguments and fights are common among zoo residents as the breeding season approaches.

Millions of species are thought to still exist in Earth’s oceans, which cover 70 percent of the planet.

Now scientists have announced they have discovered another 100, following an expedition in Bounty Trough, off the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

From a research vessel, the team lowered mesh nets to more than 15,000 feet to capture creatures lurking in the dark depths.

The new species identified there include dozens of molluscs, three fish, a shrimp, a cephalopod and a new coral species.

There is also one find – resembling a shriveled gray cauliflower – that ‘baffles’ marine biologists.

The new species was revealed by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) and the Ocean Census project.

Voyage co-leader and NIWA marine biologist Sadie Mills said the expedition showed the Bounty Trough is thriving with life.

“We went to lots of different habitats and discovered a whole range of new species, from fish to snails, to corals and sea cucumbers – really interesting species that will be new to science,” she said.

The find that baffles experts is likely a new type of octocoral – a deep-sea organism known for its polyps with eight tentacles.

The tour team initially thought it could be a starfish, a sea anemone or another deep-sea creature called a zoanthid, but so far it has turned out to be neither.

“We have a lot of experts here who are very excited,” said Dr Michela Mitchell, taxonomist at the Queensland Museum.

‘We now think it could be a new species of octocoral, but also a new genus.

‘Even more exciting is that it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral.

“If so, it is an important find for the deep sea and will give us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity.”

Another creature may be a new species of carnivorous chiton – a type of mollusk recognizable by their characteristic armored shells.

There is also a so-called eelpout: the bizarre fish with a ray fin that looks like an eel.

British marine biologist Professor Alex Rogers, who co-led the expedition, said he was impressed by the vast biodiversity of life they discovered.

“It appears we have a large number of new, undiscovered species,” he said.

‘By the time all our specimens have been examined, we will be over a hundred new species.

‘But what really surprises me here is the fact that this extends to animals like fish – we think we have three new species of fish.’

During the three-week voyage on NIWA’s research vessel Tangaroa, almost 1,800 samples were collected from depths of 4,800 meters underwater along Bounty Trough.

Over the next three weeks, the team of scientists – including experts from Britain and Australia – will sort and describe the collected specimens.

Specimens will be housed at the NIWA Invertebrate Collection and the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, both in Wellington.

According to Andrew Stewart, curator of fish at Te Papa, there are likely many more species ‘waiting to be discovered’ on future expeditions.

“While our findings are significant, we know we have barely scratched the surface of the Bounty Trough,” he said.

The knowledge gained during the expedition will be included in future editions of the New Zealand Marine Biota NIWA Biodiversity Memoir.