two new species of sea spiders discovered off the B.C. coast

The discovery of two new species off of the coast of British Columbia may not be what you want to hear today.

“If you’re swimming in the Salish Sea late at night and feel a skittering along your calves, tiny hairy feet tip-tapping their way higher and higher towards your face, don’t worry, it’s probably just the stuff of nightmares: hairy-legged, red-eyed sea spiders newly discovered by UBC researchers,” the university said in a news release.

Two new species of sea spiders are the first to be documented in the Salish Sea in almost a century, according to lead researcher and zoologist Cormac Toler-Scott.

The tiny marine arthropods — don’t let the “spider” in the name fool you, as they are not actually arachnids — were collected between September 2023 and August 2024 in areas around Vancouver, Quadra Island, Bamfield, Victoria, and others.