Uncovering mysteries of sea

Even though life under the sea remains a mystery for many, from time to time, there are some noteworthy breakthroughs.

Recently, a Chittagong University (CU)-based research team has recorded 18 new species of fish in the south-east coast of Bangladesh.

The research was conducted over three different phases from 2018 to 2020, and was recently published in three international journals. Of these, 11 species were found in St Martin's tide-pool, one in Teknaf's Jaliapara and six in the shallow waters west of St Martin's.

Tide-pools hold water permanently at low tide and creates small reservoirs.

According to the study, 441 samples of 20 species were collected. Seventeen new species were found following the process of classification and nomenclature, and the other one by DNA barcoding.

Among the discovered species, the length of adult fish of 11 species is 19.2 to 40 mm, while length of the other seven species is 36 to 220 mm.

The research projects were supervised by Prof SM Sharifuzzaman of Institute of Marine Sciences, Chittagong University. Prof Saidur Rahman Chowdhury, Dr Md Shahadat Hossain and Dr M Shah Nawaz Chowdhury were also part of the research team.

Besides, Prof Ahsan Habib of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University and Prof Seishi Kimura from Mie University, Japan, were part of the project, funded by CU.

At present, three species of urukku (flying) fish have been located in the coastal areas of the country. With this study, researchers have identified a new species of urukku -- Cheilopogon spilonotopterus.

The study was published in the journal Conservation Genetic Resources in February last year.

A research paper on six species was published in the Journal of Fish Biology, one of the fish classification journals of the international publishing house Wiley.