Marine life report highlights need for baseline knowledge

While there is a dearth of current knowledge about marine organisms and their habitats, there is also the potential for a vastly improved understanding of the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life, according to a new report on life in the world's oceans. A baseline report, issued by the Census of Marine Life on 23 October, indicates that the final tally for marine species diversity could be up to 10 times higher than the 210,000 marine life forms currently recognized by science. About 1,860 new marine species are being cataloged each year on average, the report states.