A couple of years ago, I took a marine biology class at the University of Georgia, and two thing stuck with me. The first was how college students these days can turn anything — and I do mean anything — into a discussion about Taylor Swift and/or climate change. The second was just how much of our ocean remains unexplored. I knew it was a lot, but I didn't know just how much.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the ocean is 139 million square miles and the average depth is 12,080 feet. As of April of this year, 28.7% of the global seafloor had been mapped with "modern high-resolution technology." As of mid-2025, scientists say that humans haven't even seen 99.999% of the deep sea floor.
What we do know is that there is marine life at every depth of the ocean. About 15 years ago, scientists estimated that we're not even aware of 91% of the life that exists in our oceans, which make up about 70% of the planet.
But that's changing. Not only are new efforts, tools, and technology helping us study and learn more about species that have been sitting in labs and archives for years, but they're helping us discover more about the unknown creatures that call the ocean home.
Once such project that's contributing to that is the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census. Launched in 2023, it's often called the "most ambitious marine bio-discovery program in world history." It was put together by Japan's largest philanthropic organization — the Nippon Foundation — and the United Kingdom's Nekton marine institute, and it is an "open network based on cooperation among the scientific world, the media, academia, business, and the private sector." It has a goal of discovering 100,000 new species in a decade.
Last week, the organization announced a new record of 1,121 new marine species discovered within the the last year — that's a 54% jump from the previous census.
One of the most notable from that list is a new "ghost shark," chimaera, which was discovered in the Coral Sea Marine Park in Australia. Here's more about this very understudied group of marine creatures:
Often called 'ghost sharks,' chimaeras are among the most mysterious inhabitants of the deep ocean. Distant relatives of sharks and rays, they diverged into a distinct evolutionary lineage nearly 400 million years ago – predating the dinosaurs. The species was discovered by taxonomist Dr. William White during a CSIRO expedition to the Coral Sea Marine Park, off the Queensland coast. Today, a third of sharks, rays and chimaeras are vulnerable to extinction.
I won't list all 1,121, but here's a cool video about one of the expeditions the Ocean Census took last year (there were 13 in total) and some of the species discovered.
Discovering new marine life is all the rage right now. Beyond the Ocean Census' big release last week, other projects have announced new discoveries just over the last few days. One making headlines is a tiny blue octopus discovered nearly 6,000 feet underwater in the Galapagos Islands.
A team of researchers from the Charles Darwin Foundation published their research on the finding on Monday.
"Right away, I knew it was something really special," said octopus expert and curator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago Janet Voight, who was asked to identify the strange species.
Scientists sent her the preserved body of the creature to study. "When it arrived, I was like 'Oh! My goodness! It's beautiful,'" she said, and explained that the closest known species lives in a whole other ocean on the opposite coast of South America.
The octopus — officially called the Microeledone galapagensis — is a unique color of blue rarely found in nature, but on its underside, it's a deep purple color. The octopus is also notable because of its size. CBS called it the "runt of the Microeledone family," noting that it's the size of a golf ball and will curl up in your hand.
Scientists have discovered a tiny blue octopus lurking beneath the waters near the Galápagos Islands.
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) May 26, 2026
About the size of a golf ball, the newly identified deep-sea species was found nearly 1,800 meters below the surface during an expedition in the Pacific Ocean. pic.twitter.com/AJIoLxg56h
Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, scientists also announced on Monday that they'd discovered a new marine worm "with coloring similar to a jaguar’s coat." The Sthenelais onca was found at Playa Naranjo in Santa Rosa National Park, within the Guanacaste Conservation Area, on the Pacific side of the country. This discovery was part of the BioMar-ACG project, a research effort involving the Center for Research in Marine Sciences and Limnology at the University of Costa Rica, the Guanacaste Conservation Area and MINAE.
What makes this predatory worm unique, in part, is its color and size. It's got orange, gray and cream tones, and it can grow up to 11 centimeters, which is unusually large for a marine worm of this type. Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse places in the world, but scientists say this discovery means there's still so much we don't know about what's found there in nature.
We hear so much gloom and doom these days about man-made climate change and how the Earth is dying, yet these remarkable discoveries tell a different story. A jaguar-colored worm, a tiny blue octopus, a ghost shark, and over 1,100 other creatures discovered in the past year prove that our planet is still very much alive and supporting life that we don't even know exists. It's bigger, stranger, and more resilient than the doomsayers want to admit.
And while I believe in conservation and that being a good steward of the planet is important, I also feel that much of nature is beyond our control. I laugh at those who don't think so. The ones who say cows are the problem. The ones who want to block the sun and make humans eat bugs. To those people I say, we don't even fully understand the majority of our planet and you think you can tell it what to do? A little humility is in order. The Earth is a million times more powerful than the most powerful of men.
When I took that class, I couldn't help but think that it would be refreshing if our educational institutions spent less time scaring students into political activism and more time cultivating genuine curiosity about a planet that continues to surprise us with its wonders.
