Scientists have found a rare variety of fish that they claim is the world’s deepest fish ever discovered.
The findings have been made by the researchers at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. With this recent discovery, the researchers have broken their own record for deepest recorded fish two times in one expedition.
The scientists made the incredible findings while they were exploring the Mariana Trench, the deepest trench on the planet Earth which is at nearly seven miles under the ocean surface. They discovered two new species of snailfish in the Mariana Trench. The first fish was found between the depths of 6,000 and 8,000 meters, which momentarily broke their prior depth record of 500 meters.
And the second snailfish, which was found and filmed at a depth of 8,145 meters, has set world record holder by becoming the deepest fish of the world.
“This really deep fish did not look like anything we had seen before, nor does it look like anything we know of. It is unbelievably fragile, with large wing-like fins and a head resembling a cartoon dog,” said Alan Jamieson, a biologist and expert of deep sea at Aberdeen, in press release.
The Ocean Schmidt Institute and Oceanlab undergone a 30-day voyage along the ocean vessel, called the Falkor. The expedition was conducted as a part of an international project Hadal Ecosystem Studies (HADES), funded by the National Science Foundation that primarily explores trench and hadal ecosystems.
The Falkor used unmanned landers to encounter the critter with two or three new fish species while filming them in 104-hour footage in 10,990 meters depth.