The newly-discovered species found in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. From: Inside Climate News

by Madeline McCormick

The flowers are blooming, the trees are greening, and new life is sprouting all around us. Now, in the thick of a new Spring season we bring to you a well-fitting trending topic as scientists have recently discovered an entire branch of life never documented before. Twenty four species of deep-sea amphipods–a small crustacean closely related to shrimp– have been discovered in what is called the Clarion Clipperton Zone. The Clarion Clipperton Zone, or CCZ for short, is an abyssal plain 6,000 meters below sea level that stretches 1.7 million square miles and is located between the Hawaiian Islands and Mexico. While home to incredible natural diversity despite the darkness that blankets the region, the CCZ is also an unclaimed piggy bank full of precious metals. These metals, such as cobalt, manganese, nickel, and copper, are naturally stored in geological formations known as polymetallic nodules. Picture softball-sized geodes packed horizontally along the ocean floor, each containing these metals we use today for batteries for electronics such as phones and computers.

The discovery of the new superfamily, Mirabestioidea, is an extremely rare occurrence and a huge finding for understanding the ecological properties of this abyssal environment. The amphipods discovered in the CCZ already show incredible diversity and raise even more taxonomical questions about their evolutionary history. Some of the amphipods were pale, and others had orange and red pigments–helping to camouflage from bioluminescent-driven predators. Some had claws for grasping prey or food, and others were better suited for plowing through the silty floor for nutrients. The smallest amphipods might be a millimeter or two long, while the largest are the size of a cat (34 inches)! Despite the exciting discoveries, scientists have shared that the main takeaway is that we just don’t know enough about this ecosystem. Dr Horton, one of the CCZ researchers, stated, “more than 90% of the species in the CCZ [is] still unnamed.”

The current United States administration has moved to fast track all mining permits in the CCZ despite the widely accepted stance that humans know relatively nothing about this delicate environment. How would you balance research and conservation of the abyssal plain with a growing demand for phones, computers, electric cars, and renewable energy storage?

Sources

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26032026/scientists-discover-new-deep-sea-creatures/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/03/260325005912.htm

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/new-branch-of-evolution-discovered-in-pacifics-contested-deep-sea/#:~:text=The%20Schmidt%20Institue-,25/03/26,Marine%20Life

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2026/march/dozens-deep-sea-species-discovered-new-crustaceans-named.html

Simple diagram explaining how bird flu reaches poultry, pets, and people. From: Hydro International

by Trevor Regan

We are reaching the end of winter, the peak season for avian flu outbreaks. Last year’s bout was one of the biggest news stories of the winter and spring, creating similar alarm as and conjuring not-so-welcome memories of a previous pandemic from 2020. The 2025 outbreak infected millions of farm animals and was confirmed in 71 humans in the United States. As of March 5, 2026, avian flu had been detected in around 11.5 million birds across 67 in the United States. Coverage of these outbreaks understandably focused on the toll to livestock and human lives, but marine birds play a critical role in spreading the disease, and marine ecosystems are often the first to face its consequences. 

Aquatic birds—ducks, gulls, geese, and others—are the most common hosts of avian influenza A. This means that they and other wild birds generally do not exhibit signs of the virus or die from it, and instead transmit it to other animals within and outside their habitat. Avian flu spreads to farms through both direct and indirect contact with migratory birds, as the virus exists in feces, mucus, water, and soil. When wild birds are symptomatic, their heads may appear swollen, their wings will droop, their eyes will be half-closed and runny, and they will exhibit a lack of balance and coordination both on the ground and in the air. In several areas of the United States in 2025 and 2026, local populations of marine birds succumbed to the disease. Long Beach Island, New Jersey, for instance, witnessed a surge in the deaths of native mallard ducks and seagulls.

As recently as March 13, sixteen elephant seals, a sea lion, and a sea otter in Año Nuevo State Park in California perished from the virus. Elephant seals seem especially prone to the disease, as their time spent on shore puts them in close proximity to infected birds, carcasses, and droppings. In 2023, over 17,000 seals died from avian flu in Argentina, killing a devestating 96% of the population’s pups. Avian flu is extremely difficult to prevent, given its origins in the wild, and shifting migration patterns of marine birds increase its ability to infect marine life.

Sources

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/avian-flu-detected-20-commercial-poultry-operations

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6992886/

https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5605598/as-the-avian-flu-spreads-worldwide-its-devastating-marine-mammal-populations

https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org/blog/how-avian-flu-affects-wild-birds?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22138315900&gbraid=0AAAAADCbCvBHVcd-Ipws4I321qRGWHHgL&gclid=CjwKCAjwyMnNBhBNEiwA-Kcgu3GHA3R1TObN4YXAk610rc5XGQi5kJqKtRM6EQVn098v9mvglk8HiBoCdrwQAvD_BwE

https://www.wildanimalinitiative.org/blog/how-avian-flu-affects-wild-birds?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22138315900&gbraid=0AAAAADCbCvBHVcd-Ipws4I321qRGWHHgL&gclid=CjwKCAjwyMnNBhBNEiwA-Kcgu3GHA3R1TObN4YXAk610rc5XGQi5kJqKtRM6EQVn098v9mvglk8HiBoCdrwQAvD_BwE

https://abc7news.com/post/bird-flu-outbreaks-kills-least-18-animals-ano-nuevo-state-park-san-mateo-county-officials-say/18714974/

https://www.aol.com/articles/scientists-confirm-avian-flu-california-100000929.html

Deep-sea polymetallic nodules. From: Live Science

by Trevor Regan

It has been an eventful couple of months in the marine world, and because of that, we are sharing a second Making Waves story ripped straight from science fiction. Over the past two years, debate has persisted over the existence of dark oxygen, a form of oxygen purportedly produced not by sunlight and photosynthesis, but by polymetallic nodules and electricity. 

Professor Andrew Sweetman, a researcher at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, recorded an uptick in oxygen levels at the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an abyssal plain in the Pacific Ocean that lies 4,000-6,000 meters below the sea and receives no sunlight. The CCZ has become the epicenter of marine news lately. As discussed in our other Making Waves feature, a new branch of marine life was recently found residing there, and it is highly sought-after by mineral mining companies for its extensive deposits of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and other metallic and polymetallic nodules. Sweetman and others believe these nodules, particularly those that have been lying there for millennia, are the catalysts for dark oxygen. These ancient metals are hypothesized to create an electric current strong enough to split a typical water molecule (H2O) into independent oxygen atoms, a process known as electrolysis. This discovery seemed to answer questions about how organisms survive in such conditions and raised questions about whether dark oxygen could have sustained formative aerobic life forms. 

Despite how enticing it may be to believe in dark oxygen, much of the scientific community has cast serious doubt against Sweetman’s claims. Among the critics are Anders Tengberg, Per Hall, and Angel Cuesta Cicar. Tengberg pointed to Sweetman’s somewhat sloppy testing and data collection. The 2024 experiments lacked negative control groups, and Hall noted inconsistencies in bottom water concentrations in the incubators used to measure oxygen levels, which would skew the results and lead to higher oxygen readings. Cuesta Cicar said that the proposed source of dark oxygen—polymetallic nodules splitting water molecules to produce oxygen—violates the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. 

Sweetman, Professor Jeffrey Marlow, and Professor Franz M. Geiger, in partnership with the Nippon Foundation, will lead an expedition using deep-sea robots in hopes of settling the debate over dark oxygen. The project is set to launch in April or May of 2026, with Sweetman saying that results can be expected by 2027. 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00266-9

https://oceanographicmagazine.com/news/scientists-detail-deep-sea-expedition-to-understand-dark-oxygen/

https://carnegiescience.edu/anoxia-hoax-evidence-widespread-dark-oxygen-production-earths-hidden-ecosystems

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/rivers-oceans/dark-oxygen-discovery-on-the-seafloor-is-fundamentally-at-odds-with-thermodynamics-and-should-be-retracted-experts-say

A Gannet diving for food. From: IFL Science

by Bethany Woo

Our theme for March is marine birds! Seabirds and shorebirds have developed fascinating adaptations to support their marine/aquatic lifestyle. Let’s bite down into one of these adaptations - beak (or bill) types! Seabirds and shorebirds have specialized beaks that help them forage, defend/attack, build nests, preen, and even hatch out of eggs when they’re babies. One of the main driving factors influencing beak shape and size is a bird’s foraging strategies and diet!

 Seabirds and shorebirds have a huge range of foraging strategies. Shorebirds typically forage and live along the coastline. Wading birds stalk the shallow areas, nimbly picking up fish, invertebrates, and other food sources in the water and sand. "Oystercatchers" have strong, flat, knife-like beaks that they utilize to knock mussels, clams, and oysters off surfaces and pry open their shells. Birds that forage in open waters also have diverse strategies. Some, such as pelicans, have curved beaks that help them skim the water surface and scoop up fish, krill, algae, etc. Others plunge into the water to snatch up their prey, divebombing deep after fish. Some species even have the ability to swim and pursue fish underwater!

Key beak and bill characteristics include length, shape, and size. Beak length affects how deep a bird can reach under the surface. Beak shape also relates to foraging strategy - long, thin, straight bills are adapted to plunging straight down. Wader birds typically have very long, straight, but thin bills that allow them to nimbly and accurately pick up tiny prey. However, open-water hunters that dive into the water tend to have straight, thick bills that give them greater strength to pierce the water and prey. Other shorebird and seabird groups have curved bills that allow them to probe from different angles, wedge open curved shells, dig down burrows, or scoop along the surface.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/browse/shape/Shorebirds

https://wildearthlab.com/2024/08/08/types-of-sea-and-shorebirds/

https://www.montereybayaquarium.org/for-educators/educator-professional-development/curriculum/bird-feeding-strategies

https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/5480/seabird-feeding-methods

https://whsrn.org/shorebirds-adapting-for-the-journey/#:~:text=Sandpipers%20%28Calidris%29%20have%20a%20number%20of%20adaptations:,probing%20birds%20to%20%22see%22%20through%20murky%20water