Companies, Conservationists Battle for the Deep Sea

The bottom of the Pacific is home to thousands of sea creatures new to science. Will that be enough to save it from the destruction of deep-sea mining?

By Kate Golembiewski
Dec 12, 2023 10:00 PM
Collection of deep sea specimens
A collection of abyssal specimens adorns the lab of Muriel Rabone, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in London, including a sea anemone (far left) and several varieties of sea cucumbers (middle left and far right). (Credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum London)

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Between Mexico and Hawaii, at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, lies the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. This abyssal plain sprawls over 2.3 million square miles, over half the size of the contiguous U.S., and plunges to depths exceeding 3 miles in some places. The water here is just above freezing,and no sunlight reaches it. Yet for thousands of species that scientists know almost nothing about, the strange landscape is a happy home — for now.

The creatures in the CCZ are nothing short of bizarre: long-tentacled creatures that resemble shooting stars, bristly worms that look like they’re made of ice crystals, and a sea cucumber nicknamed “the gummy squirrel” because of its translucent, candy-yellow color and tail-like sail. Each represents a tiny fraction of the 5,142 unnamed species announced in May in the journal Current Biology.

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