TRANSCRIPT

Dr Paul Willis :
Imagine finding 120 new mountains and on those mountains there are more than 400 species of creature that are new to science.

That’s the alien world that’s just been discovered off the south coast of Tasmania.

Nic Bax :
It really is the last frontier for exploration, we can see mars we can see the moon but the deep sea environment, we’re only just starting to get the technology to see that really well.


NARRATION :
100 nautical miles off the coast of southern Tasmania is an area known as the Huon Commonwealth Marine Reserve. The local fishermen alerted CSIRO researchers to the area and they used a Multi beam swath sonar scanning system to investigate.
What they found was Australia’s largest known cluster of Seamounts.

Dr Paul Willis :
It looks like a rash down there and well what exactly are seamounts?

Nic Bax :
Well seamounts are all underwater volcanoes these little spiky areas are just extinct volcanoes going from quite shallow ones up here with this lighter green colour down to the much deeper ones in this dark blue colour

NARRATION :
Some of these Seamounts are up to 25 kilometres across and rise 500 metres from the sea bed.

NARRATION :
They’re virtual islands in a deep ocean where creatures have been effectively marooned.

Nic Bax :
The whole sediment around them is very mobile and soft, not much large things growing on it and these islands provide this rocky structure and animals can attach to it and grow.

NARRATION :
And the collection of animals that have taken up residence here are some of the most peculiar I’ve ever seen.
We’re now able to deploy cameras to these great depths, we’ve worked down to about two thousands metres and not only film the animals and the structures that are down there but actually quantify everything.


Alan Williams :
This is Gigantactis its first dorsal ray is modified as a fishing rod, the fishing rod has a colony of light producing bacteria living in the end of it, mimics a lure attracts other species in and it has a very large mouth and very large teeth to make sure, they are horrific looking teeth! Everything is grab-able and nothing gets away, yeah.

Dr Phil Alderslade :
You know you wouldn’t expect to find a coral reef deep under the water but there it is you know a very vibrant living community which would rival anything you’d go and see on the Great Barrier Reef.

NARRATION :
Identifying and classifying of these soft corals is being undertaken by taxonomist Dr. Phil Alderslade.

Dr Paul Willis :
That’s pretty, beautiful isn’t it what is it?

Dr Phil Alderslade :
Ah I wish we knew (laugh) I think it’s a thing called Callagorgia, its very similar to it which is a Primnoa sea fan, soft coral but the literature is so poor so I think we might be onto something quite new here actually.

NARRATION :
About a third of the invertebrates found were new to science and up to 40% of these are thought to only occur on these seamounts.

Alan Williams :
The collections we have now give us really good base line data on the fauna and the biodiversity that characterises these deep sea environments.
under climate change these deep ocean waters which are bathing the seamounts are going to get colder. So we are very keen to monitor and see if there is a signal from climate change.


Dr Paul Willis :
This is where the seamount story actually started they were discovered by fishermen going after orange roughy, now most of the Tasmanian seamount swarm has been protected in a marine reserve and who knows what aliens they are going to find there in the future.

Story Contacts

Prof Nic Bax
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade Hobart Tas 7000

Dr Alan Williams
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade Hobart Tas 7000

Dr Phil Alderslade
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research
Castray Esplanade Hobart Tas 7000

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