Ocean Census finds 1,121 new species in 13 expeditions

1,121 new – Across 13 expeditions and nine workshops between mid-2025 and mid-2026, the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census and partners uncovered 1,121 entirely new marine species—an effort that is speeding identification while still exposing how much of the seafloor r

For scientists, the ocean has long been full of secrets—but the pace of discovery is starting to feel different. Between mid-2025 and mid-2026. researchers connected through the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census and the broader Ocean Census Alliance reported 1. 121 entirely new species living beneath the ocean’s waves.

The numbers land because the baseline is so stark: scientists have directly seen less than 0.001 percent of the seafloor. With underwater trenches. sea caves. and other hard-to-reach spaces holding unknown communities. the idea that new life could still be hiding in plain depth has stopped being an abstract promise.

The Alliance’s work is built around scale and speed. Over the past year, it ran 13 expeditions and nine workshops, pairing exploration with a systematic push to identify what comes up during surveys. Discoveries still need careful categorization, but the Alliance is trying to shorten the bottleneck.

Michelle Taylor. head of science at the Ocean Census Alliance. says accelerating the process matters because it makes findings usable beyond the moment of discovery. “I think trying to speed that process up is very important,” she said. “Then that information is available … for conservation measures, for taxonomists and for just knowing what’s out there.”.

That “waiting” problem is real. On average, more than 13 years pass between an unidentified specimen’s collection and its formal description as a new species. For less studied organisms such as sea sponges, the timeline can be even longer. Back in 2011. scientists estimated that as much as 91 percent of the oceans’ species remained undiscovered—an estimate that underscores why fully describing marine life at the current pace would take centuries.

What is striking in the latest results is how the work is being distributed. The Ocean Census Alliance has spent the past three years working with taxonomists around the world to accelerate discovery. Its open-access data platform, Ocean Census NOVA, now houses thousands of entries detailing previously unknown species. And for the 1,121 new species found between mid-2025 and mid-2026, the Alliance reports a 54 percent increase in annual identifications.

Some of those new species were found during targeted voyages. Off the coast of East Timor. researchers uncovered vividly striped ribbon worms that they suspect could contain toxins—compounds the team says may yield new treatments for human diseases. In a human-operated submersible off the coast of Japan. researchers picked out spiky sponges with skeletons made of clear. glasslike silica. Inside these sponges. they found a new species of similarly transparent worms known as polychaetes. which provide the sponges with nutrients.

Taylor also drew attention to what the microscope work can reveal beyond biology on paper. “Some of those polychaetes also bioluminesce, [or glow], so I just love the idea that there’s these crystalline glass castles of sponges, and they’re probably twinkling at each other,” she said.

The same spotlight that follows a newly identified organism also follows what its chemistry might mean. The ribbon worm’s vivid stripes may serve to warn predators of its poison. researchers are studying similar toxins from other Nemertea species as potential treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.

One discovery highlights how deep the ocean can go even when the details feel fragile. Found nearly 800 meters below the surface. a translucent animal and one other are described as both the first of their species to be identified and the first bristle worms. or polychaetes. to be discovered living symbiotically within a glass sponge.

Yet the Ocean Census Alliance’s findings also show a quieter kind of breakthrough—one that doesn’t require new dives every time. The majority of new species discovered over the past year did not come from new explorations of the ocean. Instead. they came from Ocean Census Alliance programs that funded researchers who already had specimens that they had yet to identify. Of the 1,121 total new species, 728 were discovered by teams going through museum archives and their own collections.

That museum-driven approach is a reminder that biodiversity can be sitting in drawers while being effectively invisible to science until someone has the time, expertise, and tools to examine it properly.

The Alliance describes the identification process as a mix of hands-on and high-tech work: researchers analyze specimens using microscopes. scans. dissections. and DNA testing. then make drawings and careful descriptions of what they see. It’s a workflow that typically requires deep expertise in the different kinds of organisms. helping researchers spot new species among material that may have looked familiar.

Taylor emphasized the scale of coordination required. “This takes a huge global village to contribute toward the 1,121 species that were discovered,” she said. “I’m constantly amazed about the things that we find in our marine environment—it’s magical.”

Even near places that have long been mapped and lived in, discovery still depends on looking closely enough. The Alliance notes that brightly banded shrimp were found in a sea cave near Marseille, France.

Not every newly announced species arrives with immediate clarity, either. In the rare Harenactis genus. researchers described the third known species: a burrowing sea anemone that buries itself in shallow water sediments within difficult to access intertidal zones. They first discovered this specimen in 2010. but only now are they starting to be able to define it as a new species.

For all the excitement. the findings also bring a plain. human demand to the surface: conservation and medicine both rely on knowing what exists in the first place. The Alliance’s reported push to speed identification—through expeditions. workshops. open-access data. and taxonomist partnerships—reflects how quickly science needs usable answers.

And if the ocean still holds more than 99.999 percent of the seafloor unseen, the latest report suggests that the biggest discoveries may not only come from going deeper. Sometimes, they come from finally finishing what was waiting to be recognized.

Ocean Census Alliance Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census Ocean Census NOVA marine biodiversity new species taxonomy polychaetes ribbon worms glass sponges bioluminescence museum archives