Scientists have captured footage of a fish swimming more than 8km
The gelatinous snailfish has been found at depths surpassing 8,000 meters (26,200 feet), making it the deepest living fish known to science. Called the Mariana snailfish, it's been spied with the aid of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) multiple times in the Mariana Trench.
An expedition to the depths of the ocean has led Western Australian scientists to help reel in a fish from a record-breaking depth of more than 8000 metres. The two juvenile snailfish were collected from a trap 8022 metres deep in the Japan Trench, the University of Western Australia (UWA) said.
Both manned and unmanned vessels have reached these depths, called Challenger Deep. It was long thought nothing could live in the Mariana Trench, but robotic probes have revealed worms, shrimp, and microorganisms.
Last year an expedition to the Mariana Trench made history by conducting the deepest crewed dive ever completed as it descended 10,927 metres into the Challenger Deep.
Most of the plastic—a whopping 89 percent—was the type of plastic that is used once and then thrown away, like a plastic water bottle or disposable utensil. While the Mariana Trench may seem like a dark, lifeless pit, it hosts more life than you might think.
The largest fish ever caught which is verified and listed by the IGFA is a 2,664lb (1,208kg) great white shark. It was caught by Australian angler Alfred Dean in April 1959 off the coast of Ceduna, in South Australia.
Pelican eels, which have expandable stomachs. Highfin lizard fish, which in addition to having a face chock full of teeth are also hermaphrodites. Pancake sea urchins, with their flat skeletons and poisoned-tipped spines.
Many sea creatures are made of mostly water. Water cannot be compressed, or squeezed, by pressure like air can. This means that animals in the sea can stay safe when in the depths of the sea, as their body is balanced with the pressure around them, whereas we have air in our bodies that would be crushed.
The deep ocean is too cold for them to survive. Megalodons were extremely large animals that ate other extremely large animals. Nothing big enough or numerous enough to sustain them lives in the Mariana Trench.
'No. It's definitely not alive in the deep oceans, despite what the Discovery Channel has said in the past,' notes Emma. 'If an animal as big as megalodon still lived in the oceans we would know about it.'
In the Mariana Trench—7,000 meters below the ocean's surface—these fish makes a living in total darkness and at crushing pressures that can reach 1,000 times more than at sea level. But the Mariana snailfish is not only abundant in this area; it's the region's top predator.
Black Seadevil/ Seadevil Angler Fish
Featured as a scary creature in the film, the Black seadevil is just as terrifying in real life. Sharp teeth, gaping mouth and eyes exploding out of their sockets; this angler fish is known for its luminous antenna-like muscle protruding from its head.
In 2017, the Mariana snailfish was found at 8,178 metres while another undescribed species was discovered at 8,145 metres. These fish are pushing themselves to the limit of depths they are expected to tolerate.
It is the third time humans have reached the ocean's extreme depths. The first dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench took place in 1960 by US Navy lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard in a vessel called the bathyscaphe Trieste.
The Australian box jellyfish is considered the most venomous marine animal. They may not look dangerous, but the sting from a box jellyfish could be enough to send you to Davy Jones's locker-a watery grave, that is.
The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus ssp. Intermedia) is the biggest animal on the planet, weighing up to 400,000 pounds (approximately 33 elephants) and reaching up to 98 feet in length.
The mythical kraken may be the largest sea monster ever imagined. Some stories described it as more than 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) around with arms as large as ship's masts.
Blue marlin
The striped, black or white marlin are all sure to give you sore arms if they take your bait, but it's the blue variety that will give you the biggest battle of all.
The Red Handfish
Discovered off the Tasmanian coast in the 1800s, the Red Handfish population was always limited. In recent years, the species diminished in number because of the vulnerability of the eggs the fish lay underneath seaweed. Australian conservationists list the Red Handfish as critically endangered.
Sooty Grunter are a tropical freshwater species present in Queensland and the Northern Territory. Sooty Grunter are fiercely aggressive and dirty fighters that are arguably one of Australia's most powerful fish. Pound for pound, these tropical terrors would pull almost any fish backwards!
The deepest part of the ocean is called the Challenger Deep and is located beneath the western Pacific Ocean in the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which runs several hundred kilometers southwest of the U.S. territorial island of Guam. Challenger Deep is approximately 10,935 meters (35,876 feet) deep.
The deepest place in the Atlantic is in the Puerto Rico Trench, a place called Brownson Deep at 8,378m. The expedition also confirmed the second deepest location in the Pacific, behind the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. This runner-up is the Horizon Deep in the Tonga Trench with a depth of 10,816m.
The depth of the Mariana Trench makes it one of the deadliest places on the planet. Forever covered in darkness, water temperature is below 0 degree Celsius. What makes it near impossible for life as we know it to exist is the extreme water pressure. 8 tonnes per square inch increases with depth.