Camera shows fish at record-breaking depth below sea
Aug 27, 2017, 7:01 AM
PHOENIX — With the use of 4k cameras, researchers aboard the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology research vessel caught on camera the deepest fish ever recorded.
A species called the snailfish was filmed at 8,178 meters, more than five miles down, in the Mariana Trench. The depth was determined by a conductivity, temperature and pressure sensor attached to a compact hadal-lander.
The previous record was 8,152 meters.
The cameras were placed on an unmanned camera trap along with Mackerel that was placed in front of the lander to attract any form of life. One was placed at 7,498-meters and the other at the record-breaking depth of 8,178-meters.
“Deep-sea organisms and their ecosystems have attracted great scientific interest; however, extremely high pressure in deep-sea trenches has prevented sampling as well as video recordings,” JAMSTEC said in a statement.
“The research team will continue investigations of hadal organisms, attempting to collect samples for analyses to better understand the population density of the organisms and the food chain at water depths below 8,000 meters.”
It took over three hours for the snailfish to appear at 7,498 meters and even longer, over 17 hours, for the species to show up on camera.
