Photo: ROV SuBastian, Alex Ingle, Schmidt Ocean Institute
Giant foot-long sea spiders, icefish with milky-white blood, and 200 year-old coral communities - these are among the creatures a team of international scientists came across when an iceberg the size of Chicago broke off in January.
A ship run by the US research organisation Schmidt Institute had been heading for Bellingshausen Sea when the iceberg broke clean from the George VI Ice Shelf, exposing 510 square kilometres of previously inaccessible ocean.
The scientists spent eight days studying the seafloor with a remote control camera, and were surprised to find a thriving ecosystem.
Thom Linley is a deep-sea fish expert and a curator of fishes at Te Papa, and he was the sole Kiwi scientist aboard the ship.
