Deepest sea fish ever recorded captured on camera

Scientists have captured footage of a fish swimming at a depth of more than eight kilometers underwater, setting the record for the deepest fish ever recorded.

The type of snailfish was filmed swimming at 8,336m (27,349ft) in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench off Japan, beating the previous record set in 2017.

Footage of the fish was captured by scientists from The University of Western Australia and Japan.

Lead scientist Professor Alan Jamieson said the snailfish was able to swim at the maximum depth any fish can survive, and probably did so because of trench's warm waters.

The previous record - also a snailfish - was recorded at 8,178m (26,839ft) in the Pacific's Mariana Trench in 2017.

Snailfish are found in oceans across the world with more than 300 different species currently known.

Professor Jamieson worked with a team from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to deploy baited cameras in the deepest parts of the trenches.

In the Izu-Ogasawara Trench, south of Japan, the team managed to film the deepest record of a fish, the unknown snailfish species of the genus Pseudoliparis.

And a few days later, the team also collected two fish in traps from 8,022m deep.

These snailfish, called Pseudoliparis belyaevi, were the first fish to be collected from depths greater than 8,000m and have only ever been seen at a depth of 7,703m in 2008.

“The Japanese trenches were incredible places to explore; they are so rich in life, even all the way at the bottom,” Professor Jamieson 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.

“The real take-home message for me, is not necessarily that they are living at 8,336m but rather we have enough information on this environment to have predicted that these trenches would be where the deepest fish would be, in fact until this expedition, no one had ever seen nor collected a single fish from this entire trench."

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