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SFOS Newsletter
Fall 2007

Dives in western Aleutians yield new species

This summer, scientific divers from SFOS discovered up to three new marine organisms while surveying the western Aleutian Islands.

The summer dives were part of a broad health assessment of the region sponsored by the Alaska Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program. The program is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and managed through a joint agreement between the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation and UAF.

Stephen Jewett, professor of marine biology, was the dive leader on the expedition and Douglas Dasher, a water quality scientist with the ADEC, was the chief scientist on the project.

The divers sampled more than 700 miles of rarely-explored coastline, from Attu to the Amlia Islands. Logging 168 hours underwater, the divers collected hundreds of water, biological and chemical samples during 257 dives.

Since the underwater world of the Aleutian Islands have been studied so little, new species are being discovered. For example, two potentially new species of sea anemones have been found which scientists call “walking” or “swimming” anemones because they move across the seafloor as they feed. While most sea anemones are anchored to the seabed, a swimming anemone can detach and drift with ocean currents.

Another new species is a kelp that scientists have named the “golden V kelp” or Aureophycus aleuticus. According to Mandy Lindeberg, an algae expert with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service and a member of the expedition, the kelp may be a new genus or even family of the seaweed.

Scientists are currently conducting investigations to confirm that the three species are new to science. Jewett says even more species may be discovered as samples collected during the dives are analyzed.

SFOS faculty, staff and students on the expedition included Reid Brewer, marine advisory program agent in Unalaska; Max Hoberg, marine taxonomist; Heloise Chenelot, research technician; and Shawn Harper, a graduate student studying marine biology. DEC scientists included Jim Gendron,Terri Lomax and Nic Dallman. Other members of the scientific team included Roger Clark, a marine taxonomist with NOAA, and Roger Deffendall, a volunteer diver from Unalaska.