Scientists discover “fantastically dense” animal habitat in Irish waters

Scientists at NUI Galway have discovered a new deep sea habitat living in Irish waters.
The discovery was made using the Irish deep-water remotely operated ROV vehicle.
The findings describe for the first time a vertical rock face half a mile below the seas surface covered in bivalves and corals which may be more than 200 years old.
NUI Galway Zoologist Dr Louise Allcock led the team which explored the Whittard Canyon:
“We were flying the ROV up a vertical wall in an underwater canyon system and we came across this wonderful habitat full of really big bivalves, clam-like animals, and we just found this fantastically dense habitat with very large animals that were really colourful. It was something we’d never seen before, and when we looked further we realised that nobody else had even seen it before, and it was a habitat that was completely new to science.”