The world’s oceans are still vastly unexplored, with four new species found each day

New creatures are being discovered at a rate of four per day in the nooks and crannies of the world’s oceans. And in the last eight years, over 1,000 new ocean fish species, including 122 sharks and rays, have been added to the world’s inventory of marine life, according to information released this week by the World Register of Marine Species. “The most exciting thing ever to do on the planet is be a marine researcher because there is so much to discover,” said Boris Worm, a professor of marine biology at Dalhousie University. “Everywhere we look, there is a new species.” The register, based at the Flanders Marine Institute in Belgium, is an international effort to create a consolidated inventory of all known ocean life. Last year, 1,451 previously unknown marine creatures, an average of four per day, were added to the register, according to a register news release. While some are tiny marine organisms, recent additions include two dolphins, a frilled shark species from African waters and a barracuda from the Mediterranean. While genetic testing has resulted in the detection of some new species, so have sightings of unusual new creatures. In December, a new species of fish was spotted at a depth of over 8,000 metres in the Pacific Ocean. “They didn’t think fish could live there because of the pressure,” Worm said Friday. A few years ago, Worm co-authored a research paper estimating that just nine per cent of all marine species have been named and catalogued. “(That) means 91 per cent still await discovery.” Identifying species of fish is much further along-READ MORE-http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1274591-the-world%E2%80%99s-oceans-are-still-vastly-unexplored-with-four-new-species-found-each-d