Scientists May Have Found New Fish Species

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Scientists have discovered what they believe is a new fish species and at least 20 types of previously unknown seaweeds during a recent expedition to one of the Caribbean's most diverse marine areas — a coral-covered underwater mountain off the Dutch island of Saba.

It could take a year before researchers confirm the findings, which local fishermen, working with the Dutch Antilles government, are hoping to use to lobby authorities to steer oil tankers away from the Saba Bank Atoll to protect their livelihoods and the rich underwater life.

During their two weeks at the atoll, divers braved 12-foot seas to plunge 100 feet underwater twice daily to collect marine samples. Their efforts turned up unique striped patterns on the seaweeds and one fish that researchers believe is new to science: a goby with orange spots.

"We were literally discovering a species every day, that's truly remarkable" said Michael Smith, a senior research scientist at Conservation International, which funded the January expedition along with the Netherlands Ministry of Traffic and Water Management and Miami-based cruise operator Royal Caribbean's Ocean Fund.

"There aren't very many places where you can still do that in the Caribbean or very close to North America."

Not to be outdone by the fish discovery were the seaweed findings. Smith called the area "the epicenter of diversity for seaweeds in the Caribbean."

Mark Littler, a marine botanist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, said his dives revealed landscapes that he compared to "mini rain forests." They swam through acres of red, green and brown seaweed — some that looked like ferns or were several feet high.

"It's extremely important habitat," said Littler, who has studied seaweeds worldwide the last 30 years. "We do work all over the Caribbean and we've found areas that were hotspots of biodiversity, but this exceeds all of them. ... It's an enormous system."

The 850 sq. mile atoll is larger than the five islands of the Netherlands Antilles put together, but it's been little studied by scientists.

The bank is frequented by about 40 Saba fisherman, whose annual catch is about $1 million — a little less than 10 percent of the island's economy.

The fishermen, concerned about supertanker traffic that passes over Saba Bank on its way to an oil terminal on the nearby Dutch island of St. Eustatius, asked the government what it could do to protect the atoll, said Paul C. Hoetjes, a senior policy adviser in the Netherlands Antilles environmental department.

The Dutch Antilles government will use the data to apply to the International Maritime Organization to create a protected space for the atoll, Hoetjes said.

Smith said it will be about a year before they know if they have new species. That process typically includes comparing the specimen to known fish, DNA sequencing, reviewing tissues samples and X-rays, counting the number of scales on the side of the body, counting the number of vertebrae on the skeleton and the number of rays on the fins.

Among other criteria set up by international commissions regulating animal and plant names, the scientists' findings have to be published — preferably, but not necessarily, in a peer-reviewed scientific journal — before being officially classified as new species.

C. Lavett Smith, who has studied tropical marine fishes for about 50 years and was not involved in the research, said the discoveries weren't unusual.

"There's no question that it is a very rich area," said Smith, author of the National Audobon Society Field Guide to Tropical Marine Fishes. "It is not at all surprising that they would find new species of gobies. ... Those are being discovered all the time."

Nonetheless, the findings show there's still much to uncover in the Caribbean Sea.

"Any time we find new species it tells us that we've only sort of begun to characterize our biodiversity," said Don R. Levitan, a Florida State University professor of biological science.

The Caribbean wasn't a "novel place" for researchers, he said, "so the fact that they're finding new species there tells us we still have a lot to learn."

In this Jan. 2006 photo provided by Diane Littler, a unique new species of Sargassum is seen that scientists of the Conservation International Marine RAP (Rapid Assessment Program) expedition to Saba Bank Atoll, Netherlands Antilles, discovered along with more than a dozen other new species of seaweeds. Scientists have discovered what they believe is one new fish and at least 20 specimens of previously unknown seaweeds during the recent expedition. (AP Photo/Diane Littler, Conservation International, HO) NO ARCHIVE

Caribbean atoll boasts a world of surprises
http://story.caribbeanherald.com/p.x/ct/9/id/31ec9b84e55d66ca/cid/ce785a18ec739f45/

Alistair Doyle

Oslo - Scientists have found new species of fish and seaweed on a Caribbean coral atoll that may be the most diverse marine habitat in the Atlantic region, they said on Tuesday.

Divers in January found two new species of goby fish, each about 1cm long, and a dozen new species of seaweed in a two-week study of the Saba Bank Atoll in the Dutch Windward Islands, 250km south-east of Puerto Rico.

"The atoll was poorly explored with only about 35 fish species known previously," said Michael Smith, of Conservation International in Washington. "Including the new species we found in total about 200 species of fish."

The new species of goby fish, one pink, the other white, were found in corals and sponges by a joint expedition from the Netherlands Antilles government, the US Smithsonian Institution and Conservation International.

"The team were all people who make discoveries by looking in the most obscure places for the most obscure things," Smith said.

Smith said the range of life probably made the Saba Bank the most diverse habitat in the Atlantic Ocean region, eclipsing places such as the straits of Florida and the northern coast of Venezuela.

Still, he said, some atolls in the western Pacific and Indian Oceans were even more diverse "hotspots". Worldwide, an average of six new species of marine fish were found every month last year.

Scientists said the diversity of Saba could bolster arguments for more protection. World leaders agreed at a 2002 Earth Summit to try to slow the loss of the world's biodiversity by 2010.

"The community of about 1 500 people on nearby Saba Island derives a large part of its economy from the atoll, and the atoll is being damaged," said Paul Hoetjes, a marine biologist with the Ministry of Nature Affairs for the Netherlands Antilles.

Leroy Peterson, a Saba fisherman, expressed hopes of tighter controls on tankers and other ships. "There should be no-anchor zones. For things to survive there must be stricter controls," he said.

The Saba mount stretches from a peak about eight metres below sea level to a sea floor about 1 800m deep, and has corals crowning the top. Smith said a Dutch expedition next month would probe deeper that the recent trip.

"If you can go deep the whole Caribbean is poorly known", especially beyond about 200 metres where light fades away, he said. "Going deeper is a world of surprises."

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