Scientists search Great Barrier Reef for new species

Denise Carter The Cairns Post 2 May 11;

SCIENTISTS are venturing to where no man has gone before in the Coral Sea in the hope of discovering creatures of the deep.

A team comprising Japanese and Australian explorers headed for Osprey Reef yesterday with a newly designed remote operated robot to dive to 650m and visit the sea bed and everything in between.

"Our chief engineer was Hiroshi Yoshida," said Dr Dhughal John Lindsay, an Australian researcher working with the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science & Technology.

"Hopefully, we will see Antarctic animals and can discover their ecology and niches and see what happens to them in the tropics."

The deep sea trip will be filmed by Digital Dimensions as part of documentary about the Great Barrier Reef for the BBC that is co-produced by Channel Nine and the Discovery Channel.