Hawai‘i researcher hopes her top 10 discovery protects a deep sea region
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An undergraduate University of Hawai'i researcher was working in a laboratory in 2022 when she came upon a peculiar looking angler fish that had been collected in deep-sea waters southeast of Hawai'i.
Samantha Rickle's discovery of a new species, Gigantactis paresca, has been named as among the top 10 remarkable new marine species of 2024 by the World Register of Marine Species.
The top ten list highlights some of the estimated 2,000 new marine species discovered every year.
The fish was collected while scientists created a baseline of life in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, before deep-sea mining might impact the area.
"I hope this discovery emphasizes how much more there is to discover about the ocean and highlights the importance of protecting this region in which many species are still unknown to humans," Rickle said.
Rickle, who published the discovery of the new species in 2024, is a graduate student in the University of Hawai'i's Jeff Drazen's Deep-Sea Fish Ecology Laboratory.
Anglerfish use a bioluminescent bait at the tip of their lures over their head. But this one had the bioluminescent lure and also a non-light-bearing secondary bait.
"The first time I examined this fish, it was very clearly something not previously seen in taxonomic literature," Rickle said.
She said she had Drazen look at it under the microscope and they agreed the lure, in particular, was incredibly unique from any other species. "We were both extremely excited to be looking at something completely new to science."
University of Washington anglerfish expert Ted Pietsch eventually confirmed it as a new species.
Because of her work with this new species, Rickle became interested in taxonomy and started working in the Ichthyology collection at the Bishop Museum, where she worked to formally name and describe the fish, and assisted with designing posters and exhibits.
Rickle completed her bachelor's degree in marine biology, and she continues to work as a technician at Bishop Museum while pursuing her master’s degree in biological oceanography in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.
For her master's thesis research, Rickle is continuing to work on the same specimens identified during her undergraduate research position and gain a clearer understanding of connectivities within the water column prior to the commencement of deep-sea mining.
The anglerfish was initially collected during a UH Mānoa Department of Oceanography-led research cruise in 2021 to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast area of abyssal ocean southeast of Hawaiʻi.
"With all the specimens and data collected during the two cruises from the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in 2021, there is so much more research we can be conducting," said Rickle. "I look forward to continue working on this dataset which I’m already familiar with and learning even more about this important and mysterious ecosystem."