This is a group of snailfish—the deepest living fish in existence—filmed alive for the first time in history in the name science and nausea. They live at depths of 4.6 miles (7,500 meters) or more, so scientists had to develop new camera technology capable of supporting a pressure of 8,000 tonnes per square metre—"the equivalent to that of 1600 elephants standing on the roof of a Mini car"—for a period of days.
This is a group of snailfish—the deepest living fish in existence—filmed alive for the first time in history in the name science and nausea. They live at depths of 4.6 miles (7,500 meters) or more, so scientists had to develop new camera technology capable of supporting a pressure of 8,000 tonnes per square metre—"the equivalent to that of 1600 elephants standing on the roof of a Mini car"—for a period of days.The submersible platform reached 4.78 miles down the Japan Sea trench, and had to stay there for two days to be able to obtain this crystal clear footage, taking a total of five hours to reach the seabed. The camera equipment was designed specifically for this mission by the engineers at OceanLab—the sub-sea research facility of the University of Aberdeen.
According to project leader Dr Alan Jamieson, the resulting video taking during those two days is "absolutely amazing".
We got some absolutely amazing footage from 7700 metres. More fish than we or anyone in the world would ever have thought possible at these depths. It's incredible. These videos vastly exceed all our expectations from this research. We thought the deepest fishes would be motionless, solitary, fragile individuals eking out an existence in a food-sparse environment. But these fish aren't loners. The images show groups that are sociable and active—possibly even families—feeding on little shrimp, yet living in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
Whatever. Any fish that have teeth that do this...
...are not my friends. [OceanLab via Daily Mail]
Video and image credit: Natural Environment Research Council and University of Aberdeen.
Beyond the abyss
7 October 2008
The Natural Environment Research Council's HADEEP project
Photographs and video
Below are photographs and video footage from this expedition.
Users must credit: Natural Environment Research Council and University of Aberdeen.
Photographs
- harumi-1.jpg (3.1MB) View of Tokyo Harbour as the RV Hakuho-Maru leaves Harumi.
- toyo-fits-the-bait.jpg (0.7MB) Toyo attaches the dead mackerel carcass to the lander.
- fishtrap-1.jpg (3.1MB) The team working on the Fish trap.
- landers-on-deck-1.jpg (3.2MB) Hadal-Lander A and Hadal-Lander B on the deck prior to deployment.
- deployment-10.jpg (0.7MB) The scene from the deck just prior to deployment.
- deployment-3.jpg (3.2MB) The lander is lowered over the stern into the water.
- laura-1.jpg (3.0MB) Laura Burns on deck.
- liparid-1.jpg (1.0MB) Top of view of the liparid (Snailfish) Psuedoliparis amblystomopsis recovered from the giant trap at 7700m in the Japan Trench.
- remains-of-the-bait.jpg (0.7MB) The remains of the mackerel bait after 10 hours on the seafloor at 7700m.
Video
- Abyss1-Liparid-Fish-at-7703m-4x3-720x576.avi 232·2MB, 63 seconds - video clip Liparid fish feeding at a depth of 7703m
- 2nd-attempt-NERC-Japan-Trench-7703m.mov 58·2MB, 15 seconds - movie file Liparid fish feeding at a depth of 7703m
- NERC-Japan-Trench-7703m.mpg 4·3MB, 15 seconds - MPEG movie file Liparid fish feeding at a depth of 7703m
- 1-Abyss-Lander-Deployment-48-sec.mov 26·7MB, 48 seconds - movie file Deployment of the Abyssal Lander from the deck of the ship
- Liparid-Fish-Flash-400K.flv 0·5MB, Flash video file*
- Liparid-Fish-Flash-1500K.flv 1·5MB, Flash video file*
- Liparid-Fish-Flash-4000K.flv 4·0MB, Flash video file*
- Liparid-Fish-Flash-7000K.flv 6·6MB, Flash video file*
* All of Liparid fish feeding at a depth of 7703m, at four different quality/resolutions for embedding into web pages. These files will not generally play using standard desktop media players such as Quicktime or Windows Media Player.
Further information
NERC Press Office Natural Environment Research Council Polaris House, North Star Avenue Swindon, SN2 1EU Tel: 01793 411727 or 411561 Mob: 07917 086369 or 557215