Fish caught at the bottom of the sea

At the bottom of the sea lies a world of adventure and discovery, filled with fish of all kinds waiting to be caught. Whether you’re an enthusiast or a professional angler, the underwater life at the very depths of the ocean will bring hours of excitement and a trove of memories.

How deep was it? At 8,000 meters deep. Scientists from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and Japan achieved a new record. The fish caught at the bottom of the sea is the deepest ever filmed.

“We have spent more than 15 years researching these deep-sea snailfish. The maximum depth they can survive to is truly amazing.” UWA professor Alan Jamieson explained in a statement.

The fish caught at the bottom of the sea is a depth record.
Fish caught at the bottom of the sea is a depth record.

Caught on bait

In September 2022, with the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop. He embarked on a two-month expedition to the deep trenches around Japan in the North Pacific Ocean. It was part of a 10-year study of the world’s deepest fish stocks.

Professor Alan Jamieson is founder of Deep Sea Research Center and chief scientist of the expedition. He worked with a team from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. Together they deployed baited cameras in the deepest parts of the trenches.

In the Izu-Ogasawara Trench in southern Japan, the team managed to film the deepest record of a fish. It is the unknown species of snailfish of the genus Pseudoliparis. The fish captured at the bottom of the sea was at a depth of 8,336 m.

A few days later, in the Japan Trench, the team collected two fish in traps at 8,022 m depth. These were the first fish collected at depths greater than 8,000 m. They have only been seen at a depth of 7,703 m in 2008.

Living graves

“The Japanese pits were incredible places to explore. They are so rich with life, even at the bottom,” Professor Jamieson said. “In other trenches, like the Mariana Trench, we were finding them at deeper and deeper depths. They rarely exceeded the 8,000 m mark. But in Japan they are quite abundant.”

The lone individual claiming the accolade of the deepest fish ever found was an extremely small juvenile. Snailfish tend to be the opposite of other deep-water fish. Juveniles tend to live at the deeper end of their depth range.

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