A unknown species of fish discovered at an astonishing depth  

What’s new in the underwater world? Well, a previously unknown species of snailfish has been discovered at a depth of a whopping 8336 metres in Japan’s Izu-Ogasawara Trench. This makes it the first fish to reach such a vast depth. Okay, how was this discovery made possible? Well, the story began in August 2022.  

An autonomous deep sea research ship named DSSV Pressure Drop initiated a two-month expedition to the deep trenches in the North Pacific Ocean. The goal was to explore Japan, Izu-Ogasawara and Ryuku trenches that are located at 8000 metres, 9300 metres and 7300 metres respectively. This mission was part of a decade long study into the deepest fish populations worldwide.  

In fact, the lead scientist of the project Professor Alan Jamieson, the founding member of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, collaborated with a team of oceanographers based at Tokyo University’s Department of Marine Science and Technology to conduct this expedition. He had deployed cameras in the deepest part of the trenches.  

And now, the one installed at Izu-Ogasawara Trench has revealed the video of a snailfish moving around at a depth over 8000 metres, the deepest record for any fish species, ever! Following this, in the Japan Trench too, two other species of snailfish called Pseudoliparis belyaevi were also traced at a depth of 8022 metres. They were even caught in the traps deployed at the site. Earlier, they were caught on camera at a depth of 7703 metres in 2008. So now, the scientists think that the snailfish species can go much deeper and are even hiding other secrets that will only be revealed upon further analysis.  

What’s interesting is that, they can also be found near the Mariana Trench, but not in abundant numbers. However, that’s not the only fascinating part. Turns out, unlike other species of aquatic animals, the younger the snailfish, the deeper they go, that too often completely alone. Now, how they manage to survive so deep down, especially with 800 times the pressure as compared to the oceanic surface is still a mystery to the researchers. 

The programme was funded by Victor Vescovo of the Chilean deep sea research centre called Caladan Oceanic and Inkfish.