Experts uncovered the largest colony of breeding fish in the world. Five hundred meters below the Weddell Sea in Antarctica lies approximately 60 million active nests of a type of icefish. This is the first time scientists have encountered such a huge number, as they usually only discover a handful of icefish nests at a time, or perhaps just several dozen.
The discovery was made by deep-sea biologist Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, and his colleagues. This team of experts was on a research cruise in the area, studying chemical connections between surface waters and the seafloor.
Image credit: Alfred Wegener Institute, PS124 OFOBS team