New Fish Species Lives 5 Miles Underwater—a Record

Scientists have formally identified a new species of snailfish, the deepest ever caught in the Mariana Trench. A related species has been filmed but never collected.

It's cute, almost pink, and about twice as long as a cigar, with flesh so translucent you can see its liver from the outside. And it is the deepest fish ever caught.

Scientists today formally documented the world's newest, deepest fish, Pseudoliparis swirei, an odd little snailfish caught at 7,966 meters in the Mariana Trench—nearly twice as far below the sea's surface as Wyoming's Grand Teton towers above it. The new species from the dark, frigid ocean region known as the hadal zone was first caught in 2014 and again early in 2017 but is only now being described.

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Pseudoliparis swirei, the Mariana snailfish, is a species of snailfish found at hadal depths in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean. It is known from a depth range of 6,198–8,076 m (20,335–26,496 ft),including a capture at 7,966 m (26,135 ft), which possibly is the records for a fish caught on the seafloor.

This pale, tadpole-like fish reaches up to 28.8 cm (11.3 in) in standard length and 160 g (0.35 lb) in weight. It is apparently the top predator along certain stretches of the Mariana Trench, it feeding on tiny crustaceans in a deep-water habitat with few larger predators. Pseudoliparis swirei are abundant in their deep-sea habitat and lay relatively large eggs that are almost 1 cm (0.4 in) in diameter

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This small deep sea creature can withstand more water pressure than 1,600 elephants standing on its head.

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, filmed a snailfish over 26,000 feet below the surface. The snailfish was filmed in Mariana Trench, the deepest zone of the Pacific Ocean.

To catch the creature on camera, the scientists placed a series of Hi-Res cameras on an unmanned submersible which was then lowered to the watery depths.