Scientists have filmed fish swimming at a new record depth in the very deep ocean off Japan. The Snailfish, Pseudoliparius spp. were filmed at 8336m (27,349’) deep in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, South of Japan, by an autonomous lander. That beats the previous depth record by another 158 meters and that’s only 500 meters less deep than Mount Everest is high, to put it into context.
Lead scientist Professor Alan Jamieson told the BBC that he predicted 10 years ago that fish would likely be found as deep as 8200-8400 meters, it would be the maximum depth that any fish could survive, and that it would be a snailfish. 10 years later his investigations have confirmed this. “If this record is broken, it would only be by minute increments, potentially by just a few meters,” Jamieson told BBC News.
The University of Western Australia deep-sea scientist filmed the fish by way of a camera system attached to a weighted frame released from over the side of a ship, the DSSV Pressure Drop, now renamed the Dagon. Baits were secured to draw in sea life. Physical samples of the deepest-ever snailfish were not taken at that depth, although Pseudoliparis belyaevi were collected at a depth of 8022m in the nearby Japan Trench.
800 times surface pressure
There are over 300 species of Snailfish known to science, and they have adapted to live everywhere from the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, the deepest seas to shallow river estuaries. Their gelatinous bodies and lack of a swimbladder help them survive at depth, with the pressure at 800 times that of the surface, 8000m down.
Jamieson says the discovery of fish deeper than those found in the Mariana Trench is probably due to the Izu-Ogasawara’s slightly warmer waters. He has also discovered and recorded the world’s deepest Octopus, Jellyfish, and Squid.
