A recent submarine mission in the Maldives around a seamount in Maldives' deep waters has uncovered a brand-new, thriving ecosystem that scientists claim has never been seen before.
Trapping Zone
According to Science Alert, the thriving ecosystem is found at The Trapping Zone, a 500-meter-deep (1,640-foot) region of deep water. It is where large fish congregate to gorge on microscopic nekton. Similar to zooplankton but slightly bigger, micronekton range in size from 2 to 20 centimeters.
Since micronekton can easily elude fishing nets, they are not actively pursued for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, many fishery-relevant species, like tuna, are highly dependent on micronekton.
On the other hand, each day and night, as larger fish follow the micronekton in search of food, these tiny organisms actively swim between the ocean's surface and water a kilometer deep, generating a vertical wave of migration.
Nekton Maldives Mission
The Nekton Maldives Mission is the initial investigation to comprehensively map the deep waters of the Maldives, a group of 26 coral atolls southwest of Sri Lanka and India.
The mission is a collaboration between researchers at the University of Oxford, the Government of the Maldives, and the same-named nonprofit research institute.
Satho Rahaa
Based on the movement of micronekton, the international team has discovered a novel ecosystem surrounding the deep-sea mountain known as Satho Rahaa.
These minuscule organisms start swimming downward from the surface daily as the Sun rises. Micronekton cannot dive deeper than 500 meters near the sunken seamount due to submerged volcanic ridges, and fossilized carbonate reefs formed 60 million years ago.
The topography traps the animals, making them sitting ducks for larger predators like schools of tuna, ravenous sharks, and other deepwater fish that live in the zone, like spiky oreos, alfonsinos, and dog fish.
Omega Seamaster II
Aquanauts on the mission observed a teeming ecosystem of predators and prey engaged in combat in the deep from a glass bubble submarine known as the Omega Seamaster II.
According to Eurekalert, the team saw a huge variety of fish in addition to a huge number of them. Tiger sharks, gill sharks, gulper sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, sand tiger sharks, and even bramble, sharks-which are relatively uncommon-were all illuminated by their submarine.
Scientists might learn much more about these understudied organisms due to the Trapping Zone recently discovered in the Maldives, which might lead to improved ocean conservation methods.
According to marine biologist Alex Rogers from the University of Oxford, this has all the characteristics of a distinctive new ecosystem.
The Maldives as Haven for Life
The Maldives, according to Phys.org, is becoming a haven for life because of the Trapping Zone, and, likely, other oceanic islands and the sides of continents will also have it. Because they trap micronekton, seamounts and underwater volcanoes may be hotspots for deep-sea life.
According to some estimations, the daily vertical migration of fish through the water column is the biggest mass migration ever recorded.
Micronekton and zooplankton appear to be the dominant species. Although micronekton make up a significant fraction of the biomass in pelagic habitats, our knowledge of their migratory behavior is far less developed than that of zooplankton.
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