Snailfish found living at a depth of 22,966ft Peru-Chile trench of the South East Pacific Ocean. Photo: Oceanlab, University of Aberdeen
Hot on the heels of discovering a biological oasis of life in hot, inky-black waters at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents comes news of a new type of snailfish found living at a depth of 22,966ft (7,000m) in the Peru-Chile trench of the South East Pacific Ocean.
The 10 inch long tadpole-shaped creature with a large head, tiny eyes and pelvic fins has adapted to living in an icy cold, pitch black environment under constant, crushing pressure. Mass groupings of cusk-eels and large crustacean scavengers were also found living in the narrow abyss despite the inhospitable conditions.
The findings, in one of the deepest places on the planet, were made by a team of marine biologists from the University of Aberdeen and experts from Japan and New Zealand. The team took part in a three-week expedition, during which they used deep-sea imaging technology to take 6,000 pictures at depths between 14,764ft (4,500m) and 26,247ft (8,000m) within the trench.
The Peru-Chile Trench: Image via Wikipedia
The mission was the seventh to take place as part of HADEEP, a collaborative research project between the University of Aberdeen’s Oceanlab and the University of Tokyo’s Ocean Research Institute, supported by New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research (NIWA).
Oceanlab’s Dr Alan Jamieson, who led the expedition said these latest discoveries helped shed new light on life in the depths of the Earth. “Our findings, which revealed diverse and abundant species at depths previously thought to be void of fish, will prompt a rethink into marine populations at extreme depths,” he said.
“This expedition was prompted by our findings in 2008 and 2009 off Japan and New Zealand where we discovered new species of snailfish known as Liparids inhabiting trenches … at depths of approximately 7,000 metres – with each trench hosting its own unique species of the fish.
“To test whether these species would be found in all trenches, we repeated our experiments on the other side of the Pacific Ocean off Peru and Chile, some 6,000 miles (9,656km) from our last observations.
“What we found was that indeed there was another unique species of snailfish living at 7,000 metres – entirely new to science – which had never been caught or seen before.”
The new snailfish will not be named until it is officially confirmed as a new species.
The estimates of the number of unknown marine species may be at the top end of the range estimated between 1 million and 10 million species. However, plant and animal diversity looks insignificant compared to the sea’s micro-organisms, which may number 1 billion. Their diversity is “spectacular”.
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