Unalaska, AK – Scientists have discovered a new variety of kelp in the waters off the Aleutian Islands.

"I kind of think it's like running into a rock star in the middle of nowhere," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries scientist Mandy Lindeberg, who first identified the new species on a 2006 research cruise in the Aleutians.

The kelp's common name is golden V kelp, after its shape and color. Lindeberg found it off the coast of Kagamil Island in the central Aleutians, while working as part of a research team conducting a detailed survey of the Aleutian underwater ecosystem for the Department of Environmental Conservation. The team, which also included Unalaska divers Reid Brewer and Roger Deffendall, spent two summers traveling the length of the island chain.

Lindeberg spotted the kelp from a skiff, in about 15-foot-deep water.

"You couldn't miss it," she said. "It was just very distinctive--it jumped out to me. I knew right away it was something new and different."

The kelp grows to be about nine feet long. Lindeberg said that lab analyses of the samples they took this summer suggest that the golden V is not only a unique species and genus of kelp, but maybe even an entirely new family of the underwater plant. She said it's not clear yet where else, if anywhere, the plant grows.

"We did survey all the way out to Attu, and [Kagamil] was the only island I saw it on," she said. "So [it's] probably not a very big distribution--maybe it's a remnant population that just hasn't become extinct yet."

Kelp is a key part of the marine habitat surrounding the Aleutians, providing shelter for groundfish and invertebrates.

The research team's findings will be published in the Journal of Phycology.