Pioneering research off Bermuda has led to the discovery of 1,800 new species - and perhaps as many as 53,000 - and forced scientists to change some of their fundamental ideas about ocean biology. Genome pioneer Craig Venter teamed up with Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR) to analyse small samples of ocean from the Sargasso Sea and then sequenced the genetic code. The astonishing diversity found in the 1.2 million new genes discovered in waters off the Island, considered to be an oceanic desert, has led scientists to believe that more than 99 percent of species remain to be discovered.

Before the study, less than 200 rhopsin-like photoreceptors - which convert sun into energy - had been recorded in all species, including in humans where it was responsible for sight.

“We have added an extra 800 to that in just this small amount of sea in a part of the ocean considered to be an oceanic desert,” BBSR director Dr. Tony Knap told The Royal Gazette yesterday. “It is really quite something when you consider we have the best studied ocean site in the world off Bermuda, but we had no idea it had that sort of diversity. “We have found the ocean is not homogeneous. We took samples from sites a couple of hours apart and the diversity must be absolutely horrific in a way we have never estimated before.

“The scale of this is so big that I would guess hundreds of papers will be published on this. I don't think there will ever be another ocean sample that will ever get this degree of attention. I am thrilled.”

They used the technique that the world-famous Dr. Venter, now at his own non-profit institute, used to accelerate the sequencing of the human gene map. Called whole-genome shotgun sequencing, it uses powerful computers to re-assemble the genetic code.

“By taking relatively small samples of water or soil and using the tools and techniques of shotgun sequence analysis, we are able to identify and characterise the vast legions of unseen organisms living in the environment,” said Dr. Venter, of the Maryland-based Institute for Biological Energy Alternatives.

“It is estimated that over 99 percent of species remain to be discovered. Our work in the Sargasso Sea, an area thought to have low diversity of species, has shown that there is much that we do not yet understand about the ocean and its inhabitants.”

This suggests microbes in the area they analysed use sunlight in unique ways, Dr. Venter said.

“Perhaps sunlight plays a far more important role in Earth's biology, in Earth's ecosystems, than any of us previously imagined,” said Dr. Venter. Raymond Orbach of the US Department of Energy, which helped fund the study, said this could lead to new energy sources.

“We have been looking for new photoreceptors that can be of value in harvesting light to make hydrogen using bacteria,” he told the news conference.

The results of the research were published in yesterday's edition of the world renowned Science journal.

Dr. Venter said perhaps the wealth of photoreceptors evolved to microbes could harvest sunlight instead of using nutrients.

Mr. Orbach said the study could also help find new bacteria to use in bioremediation, the use of microbes to clean up hazardous chemicals or radiation.

“We have a very serious responsibility for the cleanup of many sites in the (Department of Energy) complex,” Mr. Orbach said. “This expedition and its results have given us new tools.”

Jo Handelson, a microbial diversity expert at the University of Wisconsin, said: “This just dwarfs anything like it ever done before. It just shows that biodiversity is larger than we can get our hands around, even greater than we can guess.”