Scientists reveal deepest fish ever recorded, caught

By , April 4, 2023

Scientists have set a new record for the deepest fish ever caught on camera – as well as the deepest catch ever made. The juvenile fish – a type of snailfish – was filmed swimming at 8,336m (27,349ft) in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan.

The previous record – also a snailfish – was recorded at 8,178m (26,839ft) in the Pacific’s Mariana Trench in 2017. The Mariana Trench is home to the deepest point in any sea on earth at a maximum depth of approximately 10,935m (35,876ft).

But scientists leading the research in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench believe their discovery could be at – or close to – the maximum depth any fish can survive. Professor Alan Jamieson, who is a researcher at the University of Western Australia in Perth, said he believes the fish can live at such depths in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench because of its slightly warmer waters.

He said: “We have spent over 15 years researching these deep snailfish; there is so much more to them than simply the depth, but the maximum depth they can survive is truly astonishing.”

“In other trenches such as the Mariana Trench, we were finding them at increasingly deeper depths just creeping over that 8,000m mark in fewer and fewer numbers, but around Japan they are really quite abundant.”

Though the fish filmed by researchers were not caught to be fully identified, scientists did trap snailfish slightly higher up at 8,022m (26,318ft) – another record.                                           –                        

More Articles