An international team led by Dr Amy Baco-Taylor, from the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts (USA) and
Dr Ashley Rowden from the New Zealand’s National Institute of
Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA), have observed, for the
first time, the bizarre deep-sea communities living around
methane seeps off New Zealand’s east coast. A few cold seep
sites were previously known along the New Zealand coast from
geological and biogeochemical studies of the continental margin.
But this is the first time the biodiversity of the animal
communities living at these sites has been observed directly and
thoroughly documented, providing the first discovery of cold
seep communities in the entire southwest Pacific. With the live
video feed, the scientists observed 30–40 cm long tube worms
emerging from beneath limestone boulders and slabs lying at the
core of the seeps. Around the rocks were patches of blackened
sediment and pockets of white bacterial mats. Most sites also
had extensive shell beds consis