3 new species discovered off Calif. coast, and you can see one in SF

"When an unfamiliar pink fish appeared more than 10,000 feet down in the outer reaches of Monterey Canyon in 2019, scientists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute were able to document the moment via their remotely operated vehicle, but they weren't sure what to make of it. But after years of meticulous research, teams of scientists, including MBARI senior scientist Steven Haddock, who led that 2019 expedition, have confirmed what that footage suggested: The deep-sea creature was a never-before-seen species."

"The fish, now known as the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi), is one of three new species discovered off the California coast, alongside the dark snailfish (Careproctus yanceyi) and the sleek snailfish (Paraliparis em). It was recently described by researchers from SUNY Geneseo and scientists from the University of Montana and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. SUNY Geneseo associate professor Mackenzie Gerringer, who has done extensive research on deep-sea snailfishes, explained to SFGATE that the process of confirming a new species is anything but instant."

""The discovery of a new species is a slow process," she said. "The actual narrowing-down process takes a while, but as we started looking at more and more features, it became very clear that these were new, and so that was very exciting for us." Gerringer noted that having undergraduate students involved in the process was especially rewarding. "Many of us don't get the privilege to be involved with describing new species, so it was exciting to have them included as well," she said."

An unfamiliar pink fish observed more than 10,000 feet deep in Monterey Canyon in 2019 was documented by a remotely operated vehicle and later confirmed as a new species. The fish, named the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi), is one of three new snailfish species discovered off the California coast, alongside the dark snailfish (Careproctus yanceyi) and the sleek snailfish (Paraliparis em). Researchers from SUNY Geneseo, the University of Montana, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa described the species after years of meticulous analysis and comparisons across multiple features. Undergraduate students participated in the research and species descriptions, contributing to both scientific and educational outcomes.

Read at SFGATE