Meat-eating 'death balls' with velcro-like hooks, translucent 'ghost sharks' with glowing eyes and a strange worm that shelters deep inside a glass sponge are among the more than 1,000 marine species discovered over the last year.

Other new finds include a sea anemone that burrows deep into the ocean floor and bright orange-banded shrimp living in a sea cave off the coast of France.

The newest species found by scientists include a type of chimaera or 'ghost shark' found more than 800m below the waves in the Australian Coral Sea marine park. 

Chimaera are so named because its members often look like they have been sewn together from the parts of other fish - like the mythical Greek beast that was part lion, part goat, and part dragon. 

Meanwhile, researchers also came across a 'death ball' sponge deep within the waters of the South Sandwich Islands, an uninhabited, remote chain of 11 volcanic islands in the sub-Antarctic South Atlantic.

Discovered at a depth of 3,601m, the odd-looking carnivorous creature uses velcro-like hooks to catch tiny crustaceans, which are then slowly digested

Among the more unusual finds was a 'glass castle worm' which exists in a symbiotic relationship with a glass sponge.

Found 791m below the surface, the worm nestles itself within the translucent skeleton of the sponge. 

Researchers backed by the Nippon Foundation, Japan's largest philanthropic organisation, and Oxford-based charity Nekton, made the discoveries as part of the Ocean Census, an international effort to identify new marine life.

Scientists believe there could be up to two million species living within the planet's oceans, which cover 70 per cent of Earth. 

But to date only 240,000 species have been recognised.

Programme director Oliver Steeds said the new species now coming to light - including the 1,121 discovered in the last year - reveal so much still remains unknown about the Earth.

'We spend billions searching for life on Mars or going to the dark side of the moon,' he said. 

'Discovering the majority of life on our own planet, in our own ocean, costs a fraction of that. The question is not whether we can afford to do this. It is whether we can afford not to.'