Almost one full year on, the partners on the SW Indian Ocean seamounts project are ready to start the painstaking task of identifying and cataloguing many of the species sampled in the water column above the six seamounts visited during the 40-day expedition in late 2009.
From the nearly 7000 samples gathered, there are almost certainly going to be previously-undiscovered species as well as new information on where known species congregate, what they eat and how they behave.
The results of this exercise will not only have a scientific interest, but will directly feed into recommendations to help improve conservation and management of Indian Ocean resources and future management of deep-sea ecosystems in the high seas globally.
IUCN, on behalf of all the partners in the project (GEF, ASCLME, EAF-Nansen, ACEP, ECOMAR and the Zoological Society of London) as well as the Total Foundation and Censeam, who have financially supported this workshop, wish the taxonomists success in their endeavours and invite all interested parties to Watch This Space for breaking stories!
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