Covering around 162,163 square miles, the Musicians Seamounts chain stretches across a subsea area larger than Germany, holding around 65 underwater mountains in the Pacific Ocean, Discover Wildlife reported.
Most of these subsea mountains stand between around 2,000 and 4,000 metres tall. Ancient volcanic eruptions formed the chain between 98 million and 47 million years ago, spanning from the Cretaceous to the Paleogene Period. Around 25 of the seamounts honor famous composers and musicians, including Handel, Haydn, Stravinsky, and Schubert.
“The theme was proposed in 1959 by Henry Menard, a scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography,” the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin explained on its website. Scientists were finding too many seamounts to name individually, so they assigned names of musicians, geologists, and others to groups of them.
When National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists visited the region in 2017, they recorded a high diversity of corals, sponges, and marine life. Sightings included glass sponges, arrowtooth eels of the genus Illyophis, rattail fish of the genus Coryphaenoides, and swimming marine worms known as Teuthidodrillus.
Researchers also spotted elongated fishes with tapered bodies called cusk eels from the family Ophidiidae. “Despite their eel-like appearance, with long, thin bodies and bulbous heads, cusk eels are not true eels,” NOAA Ocean Exploration said.
Their shape makes them resemble huge tadpoles. During one dive, researchers observed a red coffinfish scientifically known as Chaunacops coloratus, an adorable anglerfish with a small lure on its face. Round, red bodies covered in tiny fur-like spines give these fish the appearance of a soft toy.
“Most individuals are pink or pinkish red, with prominent prickles on the head and body, and short cirri,” NOAA Fisheries wrote. These fish are usually seen in a characteristic posture with one pectoral fin braced like a hand against a rock and the other placed down on sand or sediment.
People sometimes call these little fish red sea toads because of their froggy faces. In these waters, researchers also spotted a highfin lizardfish named Bathysaurus mollis, a deep-sea predator featuring a haunting grin.
“Bathysaurus have beautiful, yellow eyes and a mouth full of impressive teeth,” NOAA Ocean Exploration said. Their mouth full of needle-like gnashers helps them pounce on prey.
They act as apex predators in the abyss and strike at other large fishes, according to the same organization. At Mendelssohn Seamount, scientists watched an orange sea spider prowling across a bamboo coral.
The abundance of life around the Musicians Seamounts likely stems from how the underwater mountains alter local water movement.
“Seamounts are known to accelerate currents and create eddies that can scour sediment from the seafloor, concentrate larvae and other plankton, and enhance food supply,” authors of the 2017 expedition report wrote.
These structures function like a service station for larvae and migratory animals moving through the open ocean. “Because there are no true boundaries in the ocean, the Musicians Seamounts chain potentially acts as a source of genetic diversity,” the authors added.
