SYDNEY – Fish have been caught more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) under the surface of the ocean for the first time ever — and filmed even deeper — by a joint Japanese-Australian scientific expedition.
The expedition’s chief scientist, Professor Alan Jamieson, said on Monday that two snailfish were caught in traps set 8,022 meters underwater in the Japan Trench, south of Japan, during a two-month voyage by a team from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Tokyo University of Marine Science.
The snailfish, of the Pseudoliparis belyaevi species, are the first to be caught below 8,000 meters, the expedition said. It wasn’t immediately clear how big the fish were, but the species has been recorded as reaching a length of close to 11 centimeters (4.3 inches).
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