In February, marine ecologist Enric Sala discovered a possible new species on the Desventuradas Islands off the coast of Chile. Now, National Geographic is inviting you to help name the colorful fish.
Photo courtesy Avi Klapfer / National Geographic
While exploring the sea mounts near San Félix Island (part of the Desventuradas Islands), the National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Enric Sala, and his colleagues spotted the unknown species. “We got closer and tried to focus and zoom our video camera to get a closer look, but the spots darted into a hole and disappeared as soon as our submarine lights were on them,” wrote Sala in an email toNational Geographic.
Chile has a wide variety of flora and fauna and, regardless of whether its mammal, fish or insect, new species are discovered annually.
National Geographic has decided that the naming of the 10cm-long fish should be done via crowd sourcing and made a contest out of the discovery, which could see you win a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands, famous for its diversity of animals and nature. The competition is open until August 26. Click here for details of the competition.
Crowd sourcing to name natural phenomena was used in the case of Pluto’s two smallest moons, formerly known as P4 and P5, and now as Kerberos and Styx. After nearly 500,000 votes were counted, in February 2013 the names of the moons were revealed.
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