Well, some might’ve seen the meme going around about a starfish that looks like it has cheeks. What you may not know is that the picture is indeed not photoshopped, but a real possible new creature discovered. An expedition led by the Schmidt Ocean Institute, exploring Argentina’s Mar del Plata with new high-tech technology, lasting for only 21 days, has discovered possibly 40+ new underwater species. With the help of an underwater vehicle, named SuBastian, they were able to record a livestream and find all findings to Twitch and YouTube during their 4500 meters deep expedition. The new possibility of species looks something we haven’t seen before, it’s also intriguing to many from around the world.
Schmidt Ocean Institute, established in March of 2009, has made tremendous strides in the scientific discoveries of the ocean. The institute was founded by Wendy and Eric Schmidt, avid human rights and ocean advocates. Primarily located in Palo Alto, California, they travel around the world to research more about ocean life, with the help of their boat, The Falkor, and their ROV, SuBastian. Schmidt Ocean Institute is widely successful with their patents over the years, while being a non-profit organization. Although their homebase is in California, they have traveled all around the world while sharing all about their discoveries along the way.
While discoveries were made over the 21 days, they livestreamed it for all to see. They had it accessible to stream for the public to watch. Tens of thousands would join the stream every day to see the new wonders of the ocean. Most viewers were Argentinian, yet people from around the world tuned in to see live scientific progress being made. They played the livestreams in grocery stores, pubs, and clubs. When Senior Rosemary Smith was asked if they were interested in seeing the streams from Schmidt Ocean Institute, they said, “Yeah I’d tune in, just to see some amazing underwater life and incredibly smart people doing amazing things.” As the science discoveries made their way into the internet, so did many memes regarding the creatures’ appearances.
One of the most viral memes from this expedition stems from a “estrella culina”, or “big-butt star”, named by those watching the livestream, according to Live Science. There are many comparable features of this starfish and a childhood favorite, ‘Patrick Star’. Schmidt Ocean Institute themselves say, “Some samples need to be delivered to the scientists back onboard for further research.” During the expedition, SuBastian, a remotely operated vehicle, ran into many species, discovered and not, “Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) called SuBastian to dive at 4000m depths, the scientists are attempting to explore, document, record, and extract samples of soil, water, animal, and vegetal life,” says the Internet Society. An appearingly new species is the Pastel Pink Lobster. They have found new water spiders, and alien like creatures that haven’t been seen before, which you can visit Schmidt Ocean Institutes website to learn more and view photographs. Senior Brianna Boone says, “I don’t think they will discover more, because it would be rare to find more.” Recent history would tell us otherwise. A vast majority of our ocean is unexplored, and in all likelihood, more new species will be discovered in the coming years.
We have our lovely scientists from Schmidt Ocean Institute to thank for sharing their discoveries with us, the world. They plan to explore new depths even after this. So we may get a peek into some new areas of the ocean that haven’t been discovered yet. Hopefully, they will once again stream their findings, and then share it to the public. We can not be 100% sure that there are more species undiscovered in the regions we haven’t searched, but many hope we do.
