Posted on 10/29/2025 9:49:54 PM PDT by Red Badger
“This disproves the claim we don't know anything about the deep sea."
VIDEO AT LINK..............
It might be much of a looker, but this is one of the deepest fish ever seen on camera. Image Credit: Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre
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In 2023, scientists captured fish at depths exceeding 8 kilometers (4.8 miles) and recorded them even deeper. These findings not only set new records for deep-sea fish, but also suggest we may be nearing the maximum depths at which fish can exist.
At the western edge of the Pacific Ocean lies a series of trenches down to 11,000 meters (36,000 feet) deep, where the Pacific plate, typically 4,200 (13,780 feet) meters below the surface, sinks under various continental plates.
It was here, in the Izu-Ogasawara trench, that scientists filmed an unknown species of Pseudoliparis, a type of snailfish, at an incredible 8,336 meters (27,350 feet) down, breaking the previous record of deepest fish found at 8,178 meters (26,830 feet) in the famous Mariana trench.
The Mariana trench is the deepest known trench, and therefore the most studied, but it may not be the most interesting, biologically speaking.
“Everyone thinks that depth is the most important thing in these trenches,” Professor Alan Jamieson of the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Centre, who led the expedition, told IFLScience in 2023. Although depth, and the immense pressure it brings, does indeed shape life in these environments it's not the only factor. “Temperature can also be important,” Jamieson added.
The Izu-Ogasawara is the warmest of the trenches, and therefore more hospitable to life. Combined with the high productivity of the waters around Japan, which leads to more material sinking into this trench than the Mariana, conditions for life are far more appealing.
However, Jamieson explained to IFLScience, a team operating the research ship DSSV Pressure Drop reasoned that greater warmth in the Izu-Ogasawara would allow creatures to live at greater depths, so they decided to explore.
The team was proven right with the capture of Pseudoliparis belyaevi at 8,022 meters (26,319 feet) down, and film footage of the same genus but unknown species at 8,336meters (shown in the first 15 seconds of the video above).
“This disproves the claim we don't know anything about the deep sea,” Jamieson noted.
Jamieson explained that even though the waters above the Mariana are more tropical than the Izu-Ogasawara, the trench itself is colder because it is closer to the Southern Ocean. “Antarctica drives the whole thing,” he said.
Cold, salty water sinks to the bottom off the shores of the frozen continent, a process now being disrupted by global heating, and flows northwards, slowly warming up in its travels. Whenever this bottom water encounters a trench, it flows into it. By the time the water reaches the Izu-Ogasawara, it is less than a degree warmer than at the Mariana, but that is still enough to change the ecology.
“The Japanese trenches were incredible places to explore; they are so rich in life, even all the way at the bottom,” Jamieson said in a statement.
There are no warmer trenches of similar depth, so “If someone finds fish at greater depths, it won't be by much,” Jamieson told IFLScience.
The fact that snailfish have adapted to depths greater than any other vertebrate can survive is intriguing because they are not generally a deep-sea genus. Most snailfish live in shallow waters such as estuaries.
At these depths, the 20-25 centimeter (8-10 inch) fish are living on small crustaceans, which in turn feed on material that falls into the trench when surface water creatures die. “It can take weeks or months for this stuff to sink,” Jamieson said. Yet the hungry crustaceans see no use-by dates, and build a foodweb on whatever they can get.
Fish creatures from that depth have bodies that are like jello...........Kinda like LIVING LUTEFISK..............
They brought sushi. ;-) But yes, the excerpt says lots of waste falls into the trench.
To me they look almost exactly like what they call sea robins in New England. My scuba diving friends called them “Mr Bills” (Oh No!)
We have Sea Robins here as well, along the Gulf Coast...........
There isn't an air void in a fish like that. Imagine how the water itself isn't crushed at that depth ... its all at the same pressure.
I don't remember Tori Amos mentioning fish in that song. Hehe.
Oh sure, the big purple fish gets all the glory, but whzt about the tiny fish surrounding it? Do they get no credit for being th3 “deepest fish spotted”?
They may be juveniles of the same species........
Ask Stuart Smalley!
wonder if they would hit a silver jig?
You have a line 5 miles long?.............
LOL. At least someone got it.
What’s the big deal? That would merely be 18,000 PSI.
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