New Zealand scientists have named a tiny snowflake-like crustacean after a Wellington brewery, in an attempt to boost the public’s interest in local marine life.
The roughly 1.5mm marine isopod was found in the silty depths off New Zealand’s southern east coast. It helps decompose organic material that drifts to the seabed.
Its new scientific name – Pentaceration forkandbrewer – was awarded as a prize to the brewery Fork and Brewer, after it won the best beer competition during the 10th International Crustacean Congress, held in Wellington in 2024. It is believed to be the first time a scientific name has been inspired by a brewery.
The winning brew was a “savoury, complex” beer inspired by the low country boil-up from the south-eastern states of the US and included potatoes, flaked corn, creole seasoning and crustaceans in its recipe.
“At the end of the boil, a small number of prawns were added to infuse a subtle briny foundation to the beer, reminiscent of an oyster stout,” said head brewer Brayden Rawlinson.
The beer competition was the brainchild of Rachael Peart and Kareen Schnabel, two marine biologists at the National Institute of Water and Atmospherics (Niwa) who co-chaired the congress.
“We wanted a unique way to showcase and celebrate our marine world,” Peart said, adding that the congress also hoped to highlight Wellington’s fondness for locally made beer.
“People love beer, so we thought – why not immortalise a local brewery by giving them the chance to be forever included in scientific literature.”
The roughly 200 conference attendees voted on their favourite beer, which seven local breweries had attempted to make as “crusty” as possible, Peart told the Guardian.
The primary aim of the competition was to try to encourage the public to engage with extraordinary diversity of crustaceans in New Zealand waters before they disappear from the effects of climate change and human activity, Peart said.
“We are desperately trying to document what is here and how it interacts with our environment before that all changes, and before they go extinct” she said.
“If this just brings a little bit of awareness to the huge diversity out there, it has to help.”
