New record for deepest fish

Image of the unusual previously-unknown snailfish videoed in the Mariana Trench at a depth of over 8000 meters. Image courtesy of SOI/HADES.

A ghostly never-before-seen fish with wing-like fins has set a new depth record for fish. During a recent 30-day expedition aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute (SOI)’s research vessel Falkor to the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean — the deepest place on Earth — the previously-unknown snailfish was filmed several times floating along the dark sea floor, reaching a record low of 8143 meters below the surface. The unusual fish, spotted on the expedition led by Oceanography professor Jeff Drazen and Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) professor Patty Fryer, has a different body shape from other known varieties of snailfish. It boasts broad, translucent fins, stringy appendages, and an eel-like tail that allows it to glide smoothly.

Read more about it and watch the video at the Washington Post, KHON2, New Scientist, the Guardian, and io9; read more about it in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser (subscription required), UH Mānoa News, at BBC, and Hawaii News Now. Image courtesy of SOI / HADES.