3 articles · Updated · Scientific American · May 24
1,121 new marine species were identified between mid-2025 and mid-2026 after 13 expeditions and nine workshops run by the Ocean Census Alliance.
728 of those species came from museum archives and existing specimen collections, showing the biggest gains came from speeding up classification rather than only finding new samples.
The alliance says that matters because formal description typically takes more than 13 years, a pace far too slow for conservation and basic cataloging of ocean life.
Examples include toxin-bearing ribbon worms off East Timor, glass sponges and symbiotic glowing polychaete worms near Japan, and a red-eyed dwarfgoby in Australia's Coral Sea.
With less than 0.001% of the seafloor directly observed and a 2011 estimate suggesting 91% of ocean species remain undiscovered, the group is using its open-access NOVA platform to compress a centuries-long task.
Can scientists map ocean life fast enough to save it from threats like deep-sea mining?
With hundreds of new species found in old museum collections, what other secrets are hiding in plain sight?
Could newly discovered toxic sea creatures hold the key to treating human diseases?