An ocean survey logs more than 1,100 new species, including a deep-sea ghost shark

A global survey of the world’s oceans has logged 1,121 species believed to be new to science in a single year, from a deep-sea ghost shark off Australia to a bristle worm that builds itself a glass-like shelter. The tally, compiled by the Ocean Census network between April 2025 and March 2026, marks a 54 percent increase over the typical global rate at which new marine species are formally identified. Researchers describe the effort as evidence of how much ocean life remains undocumented even as human activity increasingly reaches the deep sea. The discoveries span depths from shallow reefs to trenches more than 6,500 meters down, and researchers say the total will likely climb further as specimens already collected continue to be analyzed. Formal scientific description of each species, including publication in peer-reviewed journals, will unfold over the following months and years even though the specimens themselves have already been catalogued.

Thirteen Expeditions Built Around Rapid Identification

The Ocean Census network, a partnership anchored by the Nippon Foundation and the marine research organization Nekton, ran 13 expeditions and nine species discovery workshops over the twelve-month period. Rather than relying solely on traditional taxonomy timelines, which can take years to formally describe a single species, the workshops bring together specialists from different fields to examine specimens together and speed up identification. That collaborative model is central to how the network reached more than a thousand new species in one year, a pace organizers say would be difficult to achieve through conventional single-institution research. Expeditions covered a wide range of habitats, including coastal reefs, seamounts, submarine caves and abyssal plains, reflecting an effort to sample as many distinct ocean environments as possible rather than concentrating on a single region.

A Ghost Shark Recovered From the Coral Sea

Among the most striking finds was a new species of ghost shark, a member of the chimaera lineage that diverged from sharks and rays nearly 400 million years ago. Researchers recovered the specimen from the Coral Sea Marine Park off Australia, at depths between 802 and 838 meters. Ghost sharks, also called chimaeras, are cartilaginous fish adapted to cold, dark, high-pressure environments and are rarely observed alive because of the depths at which they live, making formal documentation of a new species a notable addition to the group. Their soft, often translucent bodies and large sensory organs help them detect prey in near-total darkness, features that also make them difficult to study using conventional trawling methods without damaging specimens before they can be examined.

A Bristle Worm’s Glass Castle

Another discovery involved a symbiotic bristle worm found living inside a glass sponge’s skeletal structure, a relationship researchers described as the worm inhabiting its own “glass castle.” The sponge’s silica-based skeleton provides shelter for the worm while the two organisms appear to coexist without harming one another, a pattern of symbiosis that adds to a growing catalog of deep-sea species that depend on structural hosts for survival. The expeditions also turned up new species of coral, crabs, shrimp, sea urchins and anemones across multiple ocean basins, several of which researchers say show adaptations specific to the extreme pressure and near-freezing temperatures found at depth.

Why Most of the Ocean Remains Undescribed

Marine scientists involved in the project estimate that as much as 90 percent of ocean species have yet to be formally described, a gap driven by the sheer scale of the ocean and the cost and difficulty of deep-sea research. Much of the seafloor deeper than a few hundred meters has never been directly observed by humans or robotic vehicles, leaving vast stretches of habitat effectively unsurveyed. The Ocean Census network was created in part to close that gap faster, with a stated goal of accelerating species discovery well beyond the rate achieved by individual research institutions working independently. Organizers have said they hope to expand the pace of discovery further in coming years by adding expeditions to under-sampled regions, including polar waters and deep trenches that remain among the least explored parts of the planet.

Data Meant to Inform Ocean Policy

Beyond the scientific interest in cataloging new species, organizers frame the effort as a resource for policymakers and marine managers who rely on baseline biodiversity data to designate protected areas or evaluate the impact of fishing, shipping and deep-sea mining. Without documentation of what lives in a given area, it is difficult to assess how human activity might affect species that have not yet been named or studied. The findings, published by Ocean Census, add pressure to expand monitoring of deep and remote waters before further industrial activity reaches them. Interest in deep-sea mining in particular has grown in recent years, and marine biologists say species data collected now could shape decisions about which areas are opened to extraction and which are set aside for protection. Organizers have also pointed to the discoveries as a reminder that species can be lost to habitat disturbance before they are ever formally named, a risk that grows as fishing fleets, cable-laying projects and mining prospectors push into deeper waters that were once effectively out of reach.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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