On March 12, 2024, scientists doing deep sea research off the coast of New Zealand discovered around 100 new deep sea species.  One of the creatures is still unidentified, appearing to be a starlike creature.  The team was doing an expedition on the 500 mile long bounty trough.  The trough was very little explored.  The team reportedly recovered around about 1,800 samples from the trough.  

When asked by CNN reporters why the team thought to look in this area and not more popular areas for new discoveries, expedition manager Dr. Daniel Moore said on March 12, 2024, he said, “You’ve got this big area off the east coast of New Zealand where there’s just an absolutely paucity of data points. We don’t know anything about it. It is still a mystery. We can’t even describe it to family. We don’t know where it is in the tree (of life) as of yet, so that’ll be interesting.”  In a separate interview the same day, CNN reporters talked to Dr. Michela Mitchell, who said, “Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity.”

For the next three weeks, the team will look at data and analyze if these are new species of ocean creature.  In an interview with theinertia.com on March 11, 2024, Dr. Michela Mitchell said, “We’ve got a lot of experts here, having a look, who are very excited. We now think it could be a new species of octocoral, but also a new genus.  “Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral. If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity.”