Largest ever fish colony found under the Antarctic ice

 

Image courtesy of Alfred Wegener Institute / PS124 AWI OFOBS team.

Joel Kontinen

Researchers have found a large fish colony in the Weddell Sea near Antarctica. It covers 240 square kilometres.

It is a largest colony of fish in the world.

”Autun Purser at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and his colleagues discovered the breeding ground by chance when they went on a six-week expedition to the polar region in February 2021.”

“It looked computer generated how structured these nests were,” says Purser. Each nest had one adult fish and about 1500 to 2000 eggs. “We don’t know how long they take before they hatch or even how many will survive,” he says.

Yes, Antarctica was believed to be destitute of all animals except for penguins on some shores, but when God has put animals iin extraordinary places, we cannot but bow down in amazement.  

Source:

Murugesu, Jason Arunn. 2022, Largest ever fish colony hosts 100 billion eggs under ice. New Scientist. 13 January,