Look: 3 unexpected creatures solve an Arctic food chain mystery

Jennifer Walter 2.18.2022 7:00 PM Surprise! Atlantic cod at the North Pole? It's more likely than you think. Copyright EFICA Consortium

Polar bears, seals, and whales might be the first creatures that come to mind when you think of the Arctic Ocean.

Davie Gan/Moment/Getty Images

But much of the polar ecosystem remains a mystery.

It can be easy to focus on what lives atop the frozen ice sheets, but what swims beneath them is also crucial. Copyright EFICA Consortium

Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm To their surprise, researchers recently came across three ocean-dwellers living in the Arctic that aren’t known to travel that far north.

FrankRamspott/E+/Getty Images Their findings were published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

From 2019 to 2020, scientists spent a year surveying the Central Arctic Ocean — a section of the sea that crosses over the North Pole.

Alfred-Wegener-Institut / UFA SHOW & FACTUAL

During a fishing expedition, they unexpectedly pulled three Atlantic cod from below the surface of the ice, about 350 to 400 meters down.

Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm

Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm Cod, which are normally coastal fish, aren’t known to swim this deep into the sea. They’ve never been recorded living as far north as the Arctic Ocean.

The research team analyzed the fish and determined that they had traveled up from breeding grounds near Norway. They survived in the Arctic for up to six years.

“Even if the Atlantic cod does not have its own central Arctic stock, this research shows that it can survive . A small number of individuals seem to find enough food to stay healthy for a longer time.” Pauline Snoeijs Leijonmalm, marine ecology professor at Stockholm University, in a statement. Mathieu Meur/Stocktrek Images/Stocktrek Images/Getty Images

Copyright EFICA Consortium The research team also spotted two types of squid — the Atlantic armhook and Atlantic lanternfish — in the Arctic Ocean.

Mike Hill/Stone/Getty Images While the fish and squid exist in small numbers and prefer to dwell within a warmer layer of the Arctic Ocean, they represent an important part of the region’s food chain.

“The availability of small and even some larger fish in the Atlantic water layer could explain why seals, walrus, and polar bear can be found even at the North Pole.” Hauke Flores, biologist and study co-author, in a statement imageBROKER/G&M Therin-Weise/imageBROKER/Getty Images

While it’s an important discovery for the understanding of the Arctic ecosystem, the researchers caution that squid and cod probably don’t maintain large populations at such high latitudes. UFA SHOW & FACTUAL, GERMANY

V Braun / EyeEm/EyeEm/Getty Images Historically, the Central Arctic has been covered completely in ice. Only in recent decades has the ice begun to melt and break apart, making it more accessible by boat — potentially attracting future commercial fishing ventures.

Alfred-Wegener-Institut / UFA SHOW & FACTUAL While there hasn’t been any commercial fishing in the Central Arctic, nine nations preemptively signed a treaty in 2018 to protect the region from such endeavors.

“Usually, exploitation of newly accessible natural resources tends to precede scientific research and management measures, and internationally shared fish stocks in high seas are especially prone to overexploitation.”

- Snoeijs Leijonmalm, in a statement. Shutterstock

From 2019 to 2020, scientists spent a year surveying the Central Arctic Ocean — a section of the sea that crosses over the North Pole.

During a fishing expedition, they unexpectedly pulled three Atlantic cod from below the surface of the ice, about 350 to 400 meters down.

More stories from Inverse