Antarctica is the land of mysteries, and to unravel them, an international team of scientists carried out a 50-day voyage across the Southern Ocean and beyond the frozen desert in New Zealand’s research vessel RV Tangaroa. During the expedition, researchers used the aegis imaging system, and it helped them to capture some fascinating images of the unknown world.
Even though the mission is still under progress, a YouTube video named ‘The Secrets of Antarctica’ has been released that documents their journey. As researchers explored the hidden world below the ice using the aegis imaging system, they were startled to discover unknown creatures humans have never seen before.
“To marine biologists, this is big, like the first Moonwalk. As the live video images come up from the seabed, the scientists log what they see and strain to find things they’ve never seen before. Giving the team their first tantalising image of polar marine life in perpetual nighttime. There’s quite a lot of fragments of things here on that,” said the narrator of the video.
The video also documents the startling discoveries of living beings ranging from Antarctic toothfish to small fishes.
“The Antarctic toothfish is one of the giants of the marine ecosystem and it is harvested by the thousands. If it disappears from the ocean, more than just dinner is at stake, it could mean an ecosystem on the brink of collapse. Sponges, among the most primitive sea animals, have no nervous or digestive systems, they feed by filtering water through their pores. Snailfish are also poorly understood, and they may have found a new species,” added the narrator.
As the mission is still progressing in Antarctica, the world of science is waiting for more mind-blowing discoveries in the coming months from the land of ice.
