Status: 04/03/2023 4:41 p.m
At 8336 meters below sea level it is very cold, dark and extremely pressurized. Nevertheless, Australian and Japanese researchers managed to film fish there – deeper than ever before.
Australian and Japanese researchers have filmed fish at a depth of 8336 meters. No fish has ever been sighted at such a great depth, the scientists explained in one communication. It is a specimen from the family of disc bellies (Liparidae). The animals were discovered during an expedition in the Bonin Trench (or Izu-Ogasawara Trench) south of Japan.
Scientists film fish at record depths
4/3/2023 3:47 p.m
Bait and Camera
There, the team led by Alan Jamieson from the University of Western Australia undertook several expeditions with submersible robots to which bait and a camera were attached. During one of the dives, a disc belly was caught at a depth of 8022 meters – also a new world record. The individual expeditions are part of a long-term study project to explore the fish population in the deep sea.
It is fascinating to what depths some species would spread, says Jamieson. “We have spent over 15 years studying these deep sea fish. There is so much more to know about them than just depth, but the maximum depth at which they can survive is truly amazing.” The fish have tiny eyes, a transparent body, and no swim bladder.
The researchers were able to catch this specimen at a depth of 8022 meters.
extreme pressure
The researchers also found fish at a depth of around 8,000 meters in other deep-sea regions such as the Mariana Trench. “They’re less common there,” Jamieson said. He doesn’t expect it to be possible to find fish at much greater depths.
Extreme conditions prevail at these depths: there is no sunlight, it is cold and the water pressure is several hundred bars. The sea reaches its deepest point at a little over eleven kilometers in the Pacific Mariana Trench. Researchers say little is known about deep-sea life.