"Nothing but fish nests": Massive icefish colony found in Antarctica

Details: Scientists were towing a camera behind their research vessel early last year to survey the seafloor when they made the surprising discovery.

• "We found fish nest after fish nest for four hours," says Autun Purser, a deep-sea ecologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany. "Nothing but fish nests."
• The colony spans an estimated 240 square kilometers (about 93 square miles), the researchers reported in the journal Current Biology.
• The majority of the nests had one male icefish guarding the eggs.

Why it matters: The researchers think the icefish (Neopagetopsis ionah) could be using the warmer waters in the area to navigate to the breeding colony.

• Purser says it is likely the icefish are an important food source for Weddell seals that populate the sea ice and are known to dive in the area.

What's next: The scientists left cameras in the water to photograph the nests four times each day for the next three years.

• They're interested in capturing more details about the nests — including whether the eggs hatch at the same time and if the location of the nests changes — to understand how the massive colony delivers nutrients to the unique ecosystem.
• "The deep sea and under ice environment are not barren of life," Purser says. The colony is "a huge hidden ecosystem and it must support and influence neighboring ecosystems."