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Researchers documented a large deep-sea skate egg nursery at the Tuzo Wilson Seamount Complex off British Columbia. Fisheries and Oceans Canada reported in 2024 that the venting summit held an estimated 2.1 million eggs associated with Pacific white skate and Boreal skate. That is an estimate, not a direct count. The available sources do not substantiate the headline claim that the volcano was thought extinct for centuries.
Where researchers found the eggs
The nursery is on the summit of Tuzo Wilson Seamount 58, part of the Tuzo Wilson Seamount Complex in the northeast Pacific, off British Columbia. It is a deep underwater volcanic feature, not a newly discovered volcano on land. Live Science reported that the summit rises about 1,100 metres above the surrounding seafloor and lies roughly 1,500 metres below the ocean surface; those figures provide secondary-source context.
Warm hydrothermal fluid vents at the summit. Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2024 report describes a geothermally heated nursery there, making “hydrothermally active” a supported description. The reviewed sources do not establish that the seamount had been considered extinct for centuries, nor do they document a recent eruption.
What the surveys found—and how the estimate changed
| Reporting | What it says | How to interpret it |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 observations, described in Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s 2025 overview | Thousands of eggs at varying incubation stages, along with adult Pacific white skates | The overview calls the egg identification a working hypothesis: researchers did not directly observe spawning or sample the eggs. Fisheries and Oceans Canada overview |
| Live Science, 2023 | Researcher Cherisse Du Preez offered the informal estimate “100,000? A million?” for the egg-covered summit | This was an explicitly uncertain estimate, not a formal count. The article described individual egg cases as about 0.5 metres across. Live Science report |
| Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 2024 | An estimated 2.1 million eggs at a venting-summit nursery associated with Pacific white skate and Boreal skate | This is the later official estimate, not a direct egg-by-egg count. The report estimates incubation at 5 to 10 years. Fisheries and Oceans Canada report |
These figures reflect different reporting moments and methods of describing the discovery; they should not be combined into one precise count. The later official report both identifies a nursery involving two skate species and gives the larger estimate.
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Why might skates lay eggs near warm vents?
One plausible explanation is that warmer water helps developing embryos grow faster in the otherwise cold deep sea. The 5-to-10-year incubation estimate in the Fisheries and Oceans Canada report shows that development is prolonged, but the sources do not establish that vent heat has been experimentally proven to shorten incubation at Tuzo Wilson.
There is relevant precedent elsewhere. A 2018 peer-reviewed study reported deep-sea skate Bathyraja spinosissima egg cases at hydrothermal vents on the Galápagos Rift and proposed that the skates were using elevated temperatures to incubate them naturally. That study supports the plausibility of the idea; it concerns a different location and species, so it does not prove the mechanism at Tuzo Wilson. 2018 study in Scientific Reports
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Why the nursery matters for conservation
Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s review record reports that the skate nursery and a coral forest overlap a bottom-contact fishing footprint. That overlap makes the site a conservation concern: fishing gear that contacts the seabed can affect vulnerable habitats and animals living there. The record does not establish the nursery’s current legal protection or designation, so it should not be described as formally protected on this evidence alone. Fisheries and Oceans Canada review record
The discovery also shows why repeated deep-sea surveys matter. The early observations documented thousands of eggs while retaining uncertainty about their identity; later official reporting described a two-species nursery and supplied a substantially larger estimate. The site’s scale and ecological importance are clearer than they were at first, even though the egg total remains an estimate.
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What is—and is not—established
- Established in Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s later account: a venting-summit nursery associated with Pacific white skate and Boreal skate, with an estimated 2.1 million eggs.
- Observed earlier: thousands of eggs at different stages and adult Pacific white skates, while the egg identification remained a working hypothesis.
- Plausible, but not directly proven at this site: vent warmth may aid egg development.
- Not established by the reviewed sources: that the seamount was thought extinct for centuries, or that this nursery currently has a particular legal protection status.
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