13 Stunning Photos From 10-Year Sea Census

Its fuzzy, winter-white coat might look at home in the Himalaya, but the yeti crab was discovered skittering around hydrothermal vents about a mile and a half (2.4 kilometers) under the South Pacific offEaster Island (map)in March 2005.

The 6-inch (15-centimeter), blind crustacean—officiallyKiwa hirsuta—is among the more than 6,000 new species discovered during theCensus of Marine Life, a ten-year effort to document all sea life that concluded Monday.

(See"Six-hundred-year-Old Worms Among Surprises of Ten-year Sea Survey.")

The project's 500-plus expeditions have also amassed a visual legacy as unique as the organisms uncovered—from which National Geographic News has selected these images as the 13 best of the census. (Read more about the yeti crab.)

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