A team of marine scientists studying deep coral reefs in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands returned from a 25-day excursion today with samples of what preliminary tests show could be 10 new species of algae not found anywhere else in the world.

And there’s more.

“We found some spectacular habitat in very deep water, including nursery habitat for juvenile deep reef fishes,” said Randy Kosaki, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s chief scientist on the trip. “This has never been seen before. This is a completely new kind of coral reef habitat.”