Scientists say they are discovering new species in the Kermadec Islands, northeast of New Zealand, halfway through a three-week expedition led by researchers at Auckland Museum.
At least two new species, and possibly five times that number, have been collected, Auckland Museum marine curator Tom Trnski (crct).
Other species had been found for the first time in New Zealand waters.
"We have two species that I'm pretty confident are new to science - a little left-eye flounder and a pipe fish," said Dr Trnski.
"We suspect the flounder doesn't grow very big as the largest one we have collected is just 10cm long."
The most exciting find was the pipe fish - also just 10cm long, with orange spots on a white body - similar in shape to a sea horse that had been straightened out.
The new species records for New Zealand waters included a shark, a zebra lionfish, a tropical banded eel, a blackspot sergeant and a tropical goatfish, though the identifications will only be confirmed after the expedition returns in 10 days.
New species were also being found on dry land by scientists from the team of 13 from the Department of Conservation (DOC) , Te Papa, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and the Australian Museum.
DOC botanist Peter de Lange found three species of filmy ferns that were new, and Australian Museum specialists also expected to find new species among the tiny marine invertebrates they had collected.
Like DOC entomologist Warren Chinn - who has been collecting moths, bugs and flies onshore - they will have to wait months for formal identifications of their specimens.
The expedition has been focusing its attention around Raoul Island, the volcano on which DOC staff live, and small islands nearby, at the northern end of the Kermadecs.
The expedition would now move south to Macauley Island, and over the next eight days the expedition will carry out surveys around the four southern islands in the island chain.
The northern islands are 1000 northeast of Tauranga, and researchers said its remoteness and isolation meant only a fraction of information had been collected about marine life around them.
