Ten years ago, a deep-sea scientist at the University of Western Australia predicted that fish could be seen at depths of between 8,200 and 8,400 metres. After a decade of research conducted around the world, the prediction has come true.
Image credit: Minderoo Deep Sea Research Center-UWA
Scientists have made an extraordinary discovery when they captured an image of a fish swimming at exceptional depths in the ocean. This species, identified as Pseudoliparis snailfish, was observed at a depth of 8,336 m (27,349 ft) by an automated lander.
The discovery was made in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench in southern Japan, one of a series of trenches located 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) below sea level on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean, where the Thai Plate is usually found. Binh Duong. At a depth of 4,200 meters (13,780 ft) below the ocean’s surface, it sinks under several continental plates.
This marks the deepest observation of nature ever made and probably won’t be surpassed either, as it was made at or very close to the maximum depth any fish can live.
Professor Alan Jamieson, the scientist who made the prediction a decade ago, told BBC News that if the current record were to be broken, it would be by a small margin, perhaps a few metres.
The baby snails were filmed with a camera system attached to a weighted frame dropped from a boat, with bait added to attract marine life. Although the species of the specimen could not be confirmed as it was not caught, several other species of fish were trapped at a depth of 8,022m in the nearby Japan Trench.
These fish were identified as the snailfish Pseudoliparis belyaevi, setting the record as the deepest fish ever caught.
Some snails were recovered at a depth of 8,022 m, the deepest catch ever made. Image credit: Minderoo Deep Sea Research Center-UWA
Snailfish are an impressive group of creatures, numbering over 300 species, most of which live in shallow water environments such as estuaries. However, some species of snailfish have also evolved to survive in the frigid waters of the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as in the extreme pressure conditions in Earth’s deepest ocean trenches.
Their gelatinous body allows them to live at depths of 8 km, where they withstand pressures of more than 80 megapascals, 800 times that of the ocean surface. Also helping them is the fact that, unlike many other fish, snailfish do not have swim bladders, which are gas-filled organs that control buoyancy.
In addition, snailfish are food suckers that consume small crustaceans, an abundant food source in trenches.
The lander’s cameras deploy along with the bait to attract fish into its field of view. Image credit: Minderoo Deep Sea Research Center-UWA
According to Professor Jamieson, founder of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Center, who collaborated with a team from Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology on this mission, the discovery of a fish that lives in the sea at greater depths than are found in the Mariana Trench is probably due to the slightly warmer waters of the Izu-Ogasawara Trench. He further explained that the team anticipates finding the deepest fish in the area and that it will be a type of snail fish.
Jamieson emphasizes that we have a substantial amount of knowledge about the deep sea and that our understanding of it is expanding rapidly.
“I get frustrated when people tell me we don’t know anything about the depths of the sea. We did. Things are changing very quickly.”
The previous deepest fish observations were made at a depth of 8,178 m in the Mariana Trench, located further south in the Pacific Ocean. The recent discovery in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench exceeds this depth record of 158 m.
This slimy fish swimming at this extraordinary depth is seen in the following video for the first 15 seconds.
