An undiscovered species of sea star is just one of dozens found on the latest cruise by NOAA scientists and others from around the world. This is the first cruise of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands that really focused on the smaller creatures there.

"The small animals that are really the basis of the biodiversity of coral reefs; it's really the small organisms that are very poorly known," explained Dr. Rusty Brainard.

He said the three week trip was one of a kind. Every night, scientists would gather around a conference table on the ship, excitedly describing the day's discoveries.

"They'd go to crabs and somebody had found a crab that had never been described before. Somebody else, it would be a sea squirt or an assydian. And it just kept going around the room and that was going on every night," recalled Brainard.

While this cruise was the first of its kind, it will by no means be the last.

"It's just the first step. We hope to be doing this thing for many years to come and the process will take a long time," said Dr. Jody Martin.

But for a first time effort, the trip was rewarding, especially for photographer Susan Middleton. Scientists kept bringing more and more unusual specimens for her to photograph.

"I could just go shopping every day and pick out representative organisms to photograph, so I was photographing every day things that I had never seen before, some things that no one had ever seen before," said Middleton.

Taxonomists are scientists who give names to new species. I wondered if one of the creatures might be named Rustyitus Brainardum.

"I would doubt that. Hopefully they can do better," chuckled Brainard.

"You do have a little bit of fun. You are free to name it after someone if you choose to do that. Usually in scientific circles, you try to name it after some characteristic that will distinguish it from others," added Martin.

However they do it, it will take the scientists at least a year to classify and name these new species.