ocean research Global Marine Biodiversity Data Are Skewed Queen Conch Funding By systematically processing nearly 19 million records from the Ocean Biodiversity Information Sys-tem, a new study has revealed that global marine biodiversity data from below 30 m are heavily biased to-ward: shallow waters (50 percent of benthic records come from the shal-lowest 1 percent of the seafloor); the Northern Hemisphere (over 75 percent of records); and vertebrates, namely fish. The study was led by Dr. Amelia Bridges from the University of Plym-outh and Professor Kerry Howell from Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth, and was published in Nature Communi-cations Earth & Environment . Biodiversity data underpin ev-erything from habitat protection to climate impact modeling. The current data gaps mean that sci-entific models and management plans risk being skewed, trained on better-known regions and taxa, while overlooking some of the most threatened and least studied parts of the planet. To elucidate these patterns, the researchers developed a novel pipe-line that separates benthic (seafloor) and pelagic (open-water) data: an important but often overlooked distinction. While the technical achievement is notable, the real story here is what the cleaned data reveal: a global call to action. The authors urge future sampling to focus on four key priorities: the deep ocean (>1,500 m), the south-ern hemisphere, invertebrate taxa and remote areas beyond national jurisdiction. This work is a major step for-ward in turning biodiversity big data into meaningful insight, with the data sets and code serving as a resource for researchers, policymak-ers, and conservationists working to meet the goals of the UN Decade of Ocean Science and the 30×30 global goal to conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s lands and wa-ters by the year 2030. 40 ST | October 2025 Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Harbor Branch Oceanograph-ic Institute was awarded a grant by the Longer Tables Fund to develop a community-based aquaculture facility for conservation and resto-ration of the queen conch on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. Through a strategic partnership with The Island School’s Cape Eleuthera Institute, the Queen Conch Conser-vancy: A Community-Based Aqua-culture Restoration Project will ad-dress the needs to ensure longevity of the species. Launched by Chef José Andrés with support from the Bezos Cour-age and Civility Award, the Longer Tables Fund invests in innovative solutions that transform food sys-tems, rebuild communities, and em-power the next generation of food leaders. Dr. Megan Davis is the direc-tor of the Queen Conch Lab and a research professor at FAU Harbor Branch. Her mission is to establish queen conch mobile aquaculture labs in every Caribbean country. ing data integrity and enhancing the reliability of scientific findings. This capability aligns with India’s scien-tific and strategic ambitions under the Deep Ocean Mission. Possible New Species Found In Mar del Plata Canyon Forty potentially new species have been discovered in a canyon nearly twice as deep as the Grand Canyon during a three-week expe-dition by the Schmidt Ocean Insti-tute’s RV Falkor (too) . This was the first high-tech exploration of Argen-tina’s Mar del Plata Canyon. Led by Argentine scientists, the expedition ventured into the deep offshore canyon using the institute’s ROV SuBastian. Deep-sea creatures such as shimmering squids, bub-blegum-pink lobsters, and a seastar that looks uncannily like Patrick from the cartoon series “SpongeBob SquarePants” were livestreamed to nearly 4 million people during the expedition. Scientists believe they may have found 40 new species, which will take time to confirm. Testing Artificial Reef Walls Clean Sampling Equipment For India’s Ocean Research India’s National Centre for Po-lar and Ocean Research has de-ployed a fully integrated clean lab, winch, and CTD system supplied by MacArtney. The solution enables high-precision data acquisition while preserving sample integrity to support marine science. Ensuring clean sampling con-ditions is essential for obtaining reliable water data that supports research regarding the seafloor, deep-ocean chemistry and the dy-namics of the marine environment. Operating in deep-sea condi-tions presents inherent challenges, from extreme pressure to the risk of introducing trace contamination during collection and handling. MacArtney’s clean lab solution addresses these challenges by pro-viding a controlled environment for handling and analyzing water samples collected at depth, ensur-www.sea-technology.com New research has been pub-lished in Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems that describes how fish react to wa-terfront edges comprising various underwater seawall panels made to resemble plant roots. The panels have different mod-ified concrete armoring designs to enhance shoreline biodiversity. The hope is that attaching these tan-gled, faux-root structures (similar to mangroves) to otherwise artificially smooth-sided waterways will attract wildlife, both plant and animal, to improve species diversity and water quality, with societal benefits. The study involved Canadian fish that showed they like the variegat-ed walls more than the flat ones. Bluegill and banded killifish were attracted to the artificial panel with the highest-relief design. Rock bass and yellow perch preferred a range of relief depths. The researchers are also tracking the results of an ongoing study with submerged panels in a lake. ST
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