The deepest documented fish ever captured on video was a snailfish that was
swimming 8,336 meters below sea level near Japan.
According to
BBC
News, the previous record-holder for the deepest fish was discovered 8,178
meters below the surface of the
Mariana Trench. According to the BBC, scientists captured snailfish that they believed to
be at or "very close to" the utmost depth at which any fish can live after
deploying an autonomous "lander" camera near Japan. Prof. Alan Jamieson, a
deep-sea scientist at the University of Western Australia, informed the
source that if the mark were to be broken, it might only be by a few
meters.
According to the BBC, the snailfish was a young member of the Pseudoliparis
species, but experts were unable to obtain a specimen to completely identify
the species. Instead, the researchers captured several Pseudoliparis
belyaevi fish a little higher up in the ocean at 8,022 meters, breaking the
previous mark for the deepest fish ever taken.
The Mariana snailfish, which had been known to scientists since 2014, was
revealed to be the prior deepest fish ever found in the Mariana Trench,
according to a story from Insider at the time. According to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, snailfish are found in the hadal zone, the lowest region of the ocean,
where no light can reach depths of 6,000 to 11,000 meters.
According to the BBC, Jamieson hypothesized that the fish's ability to
endure greater depths than those discovered in the Mariana Trench was a
result of the slightly milder waters of the Izu-Ogasawara.
According to the source, Jamieson stated, "We predicted the deepest fish
would be there and we predicted it would be a snailfish." "I find it
annoying when individuals claim that we don't know anything about the deep
water. We do. Things are evolving quickly.
This article was originally published by
Business Insider.
