Ship anchors crush 15,000-year-old Antarctic marine life

New underwater footage reveals ships visiting Antarctica accidentally destroyed some of the oldest marine life on Earth, including ancient sponges that may have lived for 15,000 years.

The first video document of anchorage damage in Antarctic waters shows cruise ships, research vessels and fishing boats leaving scars on the seabed, where vibrant ecosystems once flourished. Scientists captured dramatic footage of broken sponge colonies and barren seascapes, with ships anchored to the seabed, causing lasting scars in one of the most pristine marine environments on Earth.

The study, published in the field of conservation science, records what researchers call rigorous research on the conservation crisis. With more than 70,000 tourists visiting Antarctica in the 2022-23 season alone, the pressure on these fragile ecosystems continues to grow.

Ancient Attacks

At Yankee Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula, researchers used underwater cameras to document the consequences of ship anchoring. The lens shows a sharp contrast between damaged areas and untouched areas – the anchor drags at the bottom with little life, while the adjacent areas are filled with marine life.

“The damage observed is almost three giant volcanic sponges, believed to be the oldest animal on Earth, and may live up to 15,000 years,” said lead author and marine scientist Matthew Mulrennan, who founded Kolossal, a nonprofit Kolossal.

These giant sponges, scientifically known as Anoxycalyx Joubini, can reach a height of one to two meters, representing some of the oldest forms of life on Earth. The researchers found evidence that the anchoring chains create deep grooves on the seafloor and found fragmented colonies of cactus sponges physically damaged by anchoring activity.

What makes this injury particularly worrying is that the speed of water life in Antarctica is very slow. Unlike tropical marine environments where tropical marine environments grow relatively quickly, Antarctic species adapt to extreme cold and develop at glacial speeds.

Major discoveries from Antarctic waters:

• First, video evidence of Antarctic anchorage damage was recorded
• Ancient sponges up to 15,000 years, threatening ship anchorage
• The area where the anchor scratches is completely free of marine life
• In the 2022-23 season, at least 195 ships recorded at anchorable depths

Threatened intangible ecosystems

This study reveals the extraordinary biodiversity present at anchorable depths near Antarctica. In addition to the ancient volcanic sponge, the team also recorded the Antarctic sun stars, huge Antarctic octopus, sea spiders and various fish species – all living in areas where ships routinely descended anchors.

“The weird and wonderful animals affected like sponges are for filtering water, carbon stubbornness, and providing shelter, food and complex habitats that benefit the entire marine ecosystem, including penguins and seals – animal visitors to come,” Murennan noted.

Ironically: Visitors travel thousands of miles to see Antarctica’s wildlife, but the ships carrying them may be destroying underwater ecosystems that support the charismatic animals they wish to observe.

Tracking corruption

Researchers used ship tracking data to record extensive vessel activity at Yankee Harbour in 2023 for only one month. Eight passenger ships were fixed in the area, with the lengths of the vessels ranging from 73 to 164 meters. Each anchoring event usually involves the deployment of heavy chains 150 to 200 meters throughout the sea floor.

Key details not highlighted in the initial coverage indicate the scope of potential damage: If the March 2023 anchoring level represents the entire tourist season, Yankee Harbour Harbour can experience 40 anchoring events each season. This means that the same sensitive areas face repeated disturbances throughout the Antarctic summer.

Researchers noted that many vessels now have dynamic positioning systems that eliminate the need for anchoring, but these alternatives are not consistently used in Antarctic operations.

The frozen world recovers slowly

The Antarctic marine environment poses unique challenges to ecosystem restoration. “Ecological restoration is actually site-specific. Things in cold water are much slower than higher temperatures, so I hope it will take longer to recover,” explains co-author Dr Sally Watson, an ocean geophysicist at New Zealand’s national level and atmospheric research.

The study mentioned other Antarctic studies that suggest that subsea habitats have not recovered from mechanical disruptions after 77 years and may not recover for at least 100 years. This places anchor damage in a clear angle – a single anchoring event can eliminate ecosystem functions longer than humans’ lifetime.

Many Antarctic species are not only slow-growing, but also endemic, meaning they have nowhere else on Earth. These organisms have developed for millions of years to thrive in one of the most extreme environments on Earth, making them an irreplaceable component of global biodiversity.

An unregulated issue

“This is the first time in Antarctic waters the impact of ship anchoring and chain damage is recorded. Antarctica’s activities have many strict rules on protection, but ship anchoring is almost completely unregulated,” Murennan noted.

This regulatory gap is particularly evident given the Antarctic’s protective status under international treaties. Even though activities on land face strict environmental controls, what happens under the waves has received little attention from the protection authorities.

“The impact of anchoring is under-researched and underestimated globally. It is important to recognize and mitigate the impact of all industries and limit the anchoring of the program,” Watson added.

Solution

Researchers have proposed several practical solutions to protect Antarctic marine life. This includes establishing permanent mooring at frequently visited locations, creating designated “parking areas” that allow anchorage, and encouraging vessels to use dynamic positioning systems instead of anchorage.

Perhaps most importantly, the team recommends identifying a vulnerable marine environment that prohibits anchoring altogether. Given the discovery of 15,000-year-old sponges and other irreplaceable species, certain areas should clearly be fully protected from any human harassment.

The study also calls for better monitoring of anchoring activities and documentation. Currently, there is no comprehensive database tracking, where and frequency anchored in Antarctic waters, so the full scope of the problem cannot be evaluated.

Global wake-up call

“Anchoring is probably the most overlooked issue of marine protection in terms of global seabed destruction; it is comparable to the damage of the bottom trawl,” Murennan concluded. “It is an urgent environmental issue, but it is out of reach.”

As climate change reduces sea ice coverage around Antarctica, ships will enter previously protected shallow waters, potentially expanding the anchor impact area. The researchers warn that what they recorded at Yankee Harbour may only be the beginning of a larger conservation challenge.

For an ecosystem that has been primitive and primitive for centuries, the question is not whether humans should enter Antarctica, but whether we can visit responsibly to keep the initially making these waters so extraordinary.

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