Marine Scientists Discover Millions of Starfish

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Marine scientists surveying a large undersea mountain chain were amazed to find millions of tiny starfish swirling their arms to capture food in the undersea current.
An expedition by 19 scientists, including five from Australia, studied the geology and biology of eight Macquarie Ridge sea mounts. They are part of a string of underwater volcanoes — dormant for millions of years — that stretches 875 miles from south of New Zealand toward Antarctica.
The scientists also investigated the world's biggest ocean current — the Antarctic Circumpolar Current — amid expectations they would find evidence of climate change in the Southern Ocean.
While the expedition's cameras found a wide range of corals, a high density of cardinal fish and the huge bubblegum coral, the vast collection of brittle stars was the highlight of the voyage.
"I've personally never seen anything like this — all these animals, the sheer volume — all waiting for food from the current," expedition member and marine biologist Dr. Mireille Consalvey said Monday. "It challenged what we as scientists thought we knew."
Expedition leader and marine biologist Ashley Rowden said starfish usually cover only slopes away from the top of the undersea mountains.
"It got us excited as soon as we saw it," Rowden said of the site, dubbed "Brittle Star City." "It was unique in that it (the vast brittle star grouping) hasn't been found on the tops of sea mounts before ... (and) it was over a relatively large area" of about 60 square miles (100 square kilometers), he said.
The starfish are about 0.4 inch (about a centimeter) across, with arms about 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. The sight of the starfishes' sweeping, mucus-coated arms in the strong current "was like herds of wildebeests sweeping majestically across the plains," Rowden said.