Scientists have set a new record for the deepest fish ever captured after finding an unknown snailfish species at a depth of 8,336 meters below the surface in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, located south of Japan in the North Pacific Ocean.
Scientists from The University of Western Australia and Japan have established a new record for the deepest fish ever caught and filmed at a depth of more than eight kilometers underground. The research ship DSSV Pressure Drop embarked on a two-month excursion to the northern Pacific Ocean's deep trenches surrounding Japan in August 2022.
Baited Cameras Explore Japan's Depths
The expedition, led by Professor Alan Jamieson from The University of Western Australia and a team from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, used baited cameras to explore the depths of the Japan, Izu-Ogasawara, and Ryukyu trenches in the north Pacific Ocean.
While the team managed to film the deepest record of a fish, an unknown snailfish species of the genus Pseudoliparis, they also caught two snailfish from 8,022 meters deep in the Japan Trench.
These snailfish, Pseudoliparis belyaevi, were the first fish ever to be collected from depths greater than 8,000 meters.
According to Professor Jamieson, the Japanese trenches were incredible areas to explore due to their abundance in life, even all the way to the bottom.
The team has spent more than 15 years exploring these deep snailfish, and Professor Jamieson noted that there is so much more to them than just the depth but also the maximum depth that these species can survive.
"In other trenches such as the Mariana Trench, we were finding them at increasingly deeper depths just creeping over that 8,000m mark in fewer and fewer numbers, but around Japan they are really quite abundant," Professor Jamieson said in a press release statement.
Snailfish tend to be the opposite of other deep-sea fish, where the juveniles live at the deeper end of their depth range.
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Extremely Small Juvenile
The lone fish that holds the record for being the deepest ever discovered was an extremely small juvenile, despite the fact that there was a large and active population of fish living at these depths, according to the team.
Professor Jamieson added that they have enough information on the environment of the trenches to determine where the deepest fish would be.
The professor noted that no one had ever seen or collected a single fish from the Izu-Ogasawara Trench until their expedition.
Victor Vescovo supported the expedition at Caladan Oceanic and Inkfish. This discovery is a significant achievement, as it shows the vastness of the ocean's depths and how little is known about them.
It also highlights the importance of further exploration and research to understand deep-sea ecosystems better and identify possible threats to the marine environment.
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