Fragile sea creature sucked inside Aussie ship begins spawning eggs: 'Secrets hidden'
A fragile creature that was drawn into an Australian ship during a remote voyage has begun to lay eggs. The delicate 'sea butterfly' was discovered inside the icebreaker RSV Nuyina during a voyage to East Antarctica and then placed inside an aquarium tank to see what happened next.
The study is part of a mission to understand the region which is undergoing a rapid change as temperatures warm. The Denman Marine Voyage's goal is to research a little-known glacier and the rare and elusive creatures that live around its waters. It pulls together 45 crew, 25 support staff and 60 scientists from four research organisations.
It's the first time researchers have been able to monitor the development of eggs laid by this species of sea butterfly, which resembles an iris inside a narrow vase. The crew have named the animal Clio because it's a pteropod with the scientific name Clio pyramidata.
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Ordinarily, the free swimming sea snail would be killed by nets used by researchers wanting to study it. But in this case, a specialised system was created to allow the gentle flow of water into a wet lab so they can carry on their lifecycle unharmed.
'The team is super excited about having the little creature, and observing it and looking after it, so it tells all of the secrets that have been hidden until now,' Dr Laura Herraiz Borreguero from the CSIRO said.
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Studying the 100km-long Denman Glacier is the focus of the mission. It has melted at a disturbingly fast rate, retreating by 5km in the last 20 years. If it were to melt completely, the sea level would rise by an estimated 1.5 metres, creating huge changes to the world's coastlines, destroying homes, contaminating water, and ruining agricultural crops.
Located just 5,000km south off the coast of Australia, the crews say its findings will be 'crucial for Australia's future and the welfare of the global community'.
The mission is in its fifth week. Researchers from the Australian Antarctic Division, the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership and Securing Antarctica's Environmental Future, are working 24-hour shifts to gather information.
They're collecting ice cores from the sea floor, studying clouds to improve climate modelling, and investigating marine life using nets and cameras, including sea spiders and sea pigs that grow to the size of a human hand, sea stars that are bigger than dinner plates, and several species believed to be new to science. The ship is expected to return to Hobart in early May.
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