Scientists exploring the undersea trenches of Japan have released footage of the deepest fish ever filmed! A young snailfish strutted its stuff for the camera at an incredible depth of 8,336 meters. While the footage was recorded in September, the researchers just released this incredible video last week.
If the deepest recorded fish wasn’t enough, they also physically caught two other specimens at 8,022 meters. Which set yet another record for the deepest catch. Before this discovery the deepest snailfish ever recorded was spotted at 7,703 meters down in 2008. And before these catches, they had never been able to collect fish from anywhere below 8,000 meters.
The footage and catches are a result of a joint effort between the University of Western Australia and the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. Their researchers are using sea robots to probe the deep sea abyss’ of the northern Pacific Ocean. This is part of a larger 10-year study of the deepest fish populations in the world.
“What is significant is that it shows how far a particular type of fish will descend in the ocean,” Alan Jamieson, marine biologist, and founder of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, said. Jamieson also led the expedition and added that while most snailfish live in shallow water, others survive at some incredible depths. The snailfish recorded is a juvenile and often younger deep-sea snailfish stay as deep as possible to avoid being eaten by predators that swim at shallower depths.
Images of the two captured snailfish will provide a rare look at some of the unique features that help the deep sea species survive in such extreme conditions. Jamieson explains that they have tiny eyes, translucent bodies, and they lack swim bladders which fish used to help them float. Which makes sense when you chill out at such extreme depths.
While these discoveries are certainly amazing, much of the deep sea still remains relatively unexplored. The reason for this is unfortunately due to how costly explorations like this are. Each sea robot, or lander, costs $200,000 to assemble and operate. “The challenges are that technology has been expensive and scientists don’t have a lot of money,” said Jamieson. An all too common theme in many STEM programs. Just imagine how many more cute fish we are missing out on!
Check out the researchers’ incredible footage below:
