Scientist's lifelong obsession with mystery of elusive 'pink zebra' seaweed
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- Prof Christine Maggs first spotted a fragment of pink-striped seaweed on a maerl bed during her PhD research 40 years ago and spent decades searching for enough material to formally identify it as a new species.
- Francis Bunker, a freelance marine biologist, gathered a sample of the elusive seaweed two years ago while surveying Cornish maerl beds for a Natural England project and sent it to Maggs in London, where she grew it in a wine fridge until it was large enough for DNA sequencing.
- Maggs and Prof Beatriz de Barros Barreto confirmed through molecular analysis that the seaweed is indeed new to science, with Maggs' findings due to be published in the peer-reviewed journal Phycologia and a sample now joining the Natural History Museum's official collection.
- The new species will carry the scientific name ceramium ruenessianum in honour of a colleague, and Maggs is inviting the public to suggest a common name — with "pink-zebra weed," "pink-banded bandit" and "ribbon claw" already circulating among the diving team.
- Maerl beds are classed as a threatened and declining habitat under the OSPAR convention, with only four protected maerl sites currently in the UK.
- The Department for Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs said it may not be necessary to designate the south Cornish coast beds — where the new species has also been found — as a Special Area of Conservation, citing the need to balance nature recovery with "offshore wind development and fisheries."
Why it matters: The discovery expands the documented biodiversity of an already-threatened habitat and gives conservationists a new reason to push for formal protection of unprotected south Cornish maerl beds — but the UK government is signaling those beds may remain unprotected as offshore wind and fisheries take priority in spatial planning.
