The giant ice fish body was discovered under the Weddell Sea ice layer in the South, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology.
In February 2021, the German research ship Polarstern was surveying the seabed through a camera pulling system more than 300m deep under the sea and transmitting images to the deck for the researchers on board to view.
What scientists observed on the ship was a surprising discovery: A large number of ice fish nests appear to spread in all directions.
"The idea of such a giant breeding area for icebreds in the Weddell Sea that had not been discovered before is really exciting," said Autun Purser, a deep marine biologist at the Wegener Institute, Helholtz Center for Ocean and Geophysical Research, and lead author of the study.
After the spectacular discovery of many ice fish nests, we came up with a strategy to find out how large the breeding area is. There is really no end in the world" - the lead author of the study discovering a giant population of ice cubes at the bottom of the Arctic sea shared more.
The camera recorded more than 16,000 ice cubs during a 4-hour diving process. According to the researchers, the map of this area shows that the total number of ice fish nests is about 60 million, spread over an area of about 238km2 below the seabed. The discovery makes the ice fish population the largest breeding fish ever found.
The ice caps on the bottom of the South Polar Sea belong to this giant cluster about 25cm apart, about 15cm deep and about 73cm in diameter. Some ice groups have been classified by observers, including active ice groups containing 1,500 to 2,500 eggs protected by adult ice fish, ice fish groups containing only eggs and trong nests.
Cameras have been deployed to monitor the large breeding area of icebreds in the Southern Hemisphere until a research vessel returns to the area later this year for further research.
