IT is not everyday that a new species is discovered. 

But for one Colchester based scientist there was an opportunity to help uncover nearly 100 previously unknown ocean species.  

Jessica Gordon, a Essex University scientist, was part of a global team which discovered nearly 100 ocean species during an expedition off New Zealand.

Jessica joined the three-week journey aboard the research vessel Tangaroa, which marked the inaugural trip to the Southern Hemisphere for Ocean Census.

The vessel visited the unexplored Bounty Trough area where researchers collected roughly 1,800 samples from the seafloor.

Jessica, a specialist technician at the Essex School of Life Sciences, said: "We explored unmapped areas of the seafloor down to 5,000 meters and discovered over 100 new species of deep-sea organisms.

"Overall, the three-weeklong expedition and subsequent taxonomy workshop was an amazing experience, and I look forward to collaborating with Ocean Census in the future."

Ocean Census science director, Professor Alex Rogers, who co-directed the expedition, expressed his astonishment at the diversity of the species they uncovered.

He said: “It looks like we have a great haul of new, undiscovered species.

"By the time all our specimens are examined, we will be north of 100 new species.

"But what’s really surprised me here is the fact this extends to animals like fish – we think we’ve got three new species of fish."

Queensland Museum taxonomist, Dr Michela Mitchell, remarked on one discovery which has left the team baffled, after originally thinking they'd found a seastar, a sea-anemone or zoanthid-like creature - it has so far proven to be none of those.

Dr Mitchell said: "We’ve got a lot of experts here having a look who are very excited.

“We now think it could be a new species of octocoral, but also a new genus [wider grouping of species].

"Even more excitingly, it could be a whole new group outside of the octocoral.

"If it is, that is a significant find for the deep sea and gives us a much clearer picture of the planet’s unique biodiversity,” she said.

Scientific teams globally are now working to validate the discoveries at taxonomic workshops at NIWA and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

The specimens will then be added to the Aotearoa New Zealand marine biodiversity inventory.