Scientists discover 15 species new to Korea

Scientists discovered 15 marine species that are new to Korean coastal waters, the Ministry of Environment said Thursday.

The newly-spotted species including shrimps, crabs and lobsters were found on coral and in rock crevices 60 meters below sea level around Jeju Island.

The National Institute of Biological Resources conducted the six-month research project until May. The institute mobilized five scientists who had been trained to dive as deep as 200 meters.

“In the past, the only way we conducted research on species so deep underwater was using nets from ships and collecting specimens,” said Kil Hyun-jong, one of the scientists who participated in the project.

“The 15 species, however, inhabit coral and rocks and had never been caught by a net.”

Eleven of the species live in symbiosis with coral, such as quadrella coronate, a crab-like creature that does not belong to any domain, genus or family found in Korean waters.

Others included pontoides ankeri, a shrimp that lives 30 to 40 meters under the sea, and a feather star squat lobster that has a distinct appearance with stripes on its shell.

The four other species live in rock crevices and prey on smaller creatures. One of them was the mantis shrimp ― a 5-centimeter-long creature that resembles a lobster.

Kil said the species are probably from subtropical climatic regions, adding that global warming expanded their habitat from seawaters around Taiwan and the south of Japan to here.

“We estimate that the species began to inhabit the sea around Jeju Island between the late 1980s and 1990s, and as such this suggests the climate of Korea has gradually become subtropical, although people have only begun to notice it recently.” <The Korea Times/Yi Whan-woo>

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