Fishing ban proposed near Rockall after rare scientific finds

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jun/14/fishing-banned-rockall-new-species-found


A frilled shark head. The ancient 'living fossil' species of shark that dates back at least 90m years was caught during the survey around Rockall. Photograph: Francis Neat

Fishing is expected to be banned near the Atlantic islet of Rockall after a rare methane gas vent in the seabed and two new shellfish species were discovered by British scientists.

The methane, which leaks through a so-called "cold seep" vent in the ocean floor, was found last year by scientists working with the government agency Marine Scotland. It is the first of its kind to be found near UK waters and only the third in the north-east Atlantic.

It was detected after Marine Scotland's Scotia survey ship trawled up two new species of deep-water clam that have a "chemosynthetic" relationship with the methane: the clams' food source is a bacteria that harvests the gas. That implies there may be a complex ecosystem around the mouth of the vent.

Francis Neat, the Marine Scotland scientist who oversaw the survey, said the site roughly four miles west of Rockall island was comparable to the complex habitats that build up around often exceptionally hot mineral-rich hydrothermal vents found on mid-ocean ridges.

[Bay Boy]

1. The shark is fasinating to look at...

...but I have a question on the clam. It has a 'chemosynthetic' relationship with the methane. Does that mean that the methane has been venting for millions of years?