ABARDEEN - Exploration of one of the deepest ocean trench in the world had found new species of fish. The discovery was proved wrong initial assumption that there is no fish that live in ocean trenches.
The discovery of marine biologists from Aberdeen, Tokyo, and New Zealand it has uncovered the life in one of the deepest place on earth and global distribution of fish and other marine organisms. Expedition to Peru-Chile trench in the Pacific Ocean southeast snailfish discovered a new species at a depth of 7000 meters.
They also found a group of cusk-eels, fish like eels, and crustaceans in the deep sea scavengers for the first time.
In a three-week expedition on research vessel Sonne, the team of scientists use sophisticated imaging technology, including a camera system that can free dive to take 6000 pictures in the trough in 4500 and 8000 meters depth.
"These findings encourage the re-evaluation of the diversity and abundance of life at extreme depths."
Scientists are investigating at one of the world's deepest ocean trench - previously considered unoccupied fish - have discovered an entirely new species.
The findings by a team of marine biologists from Aberdeen, Tokyo and New Zealand, has shed new light on life in the deepest places on earth and global distribution of fish in our seas.
Expedition into the Peru-Chile trench in the south eastern Pacific Ocean revealed a new species at a depth of 7000 meters snailfish, have never been caught or photographed.
The groups of mass-cusk eel and large crustacean scavengers also found living at this depth for the first time.
During the three-week expedition with the research vessel Sonne, a team of scientists utilize state-of art imaging technology-sea-depth, including free-baited camera system drowning in ultra-deep water, to take a total of 6,000 shots between 4500 and 8000 meters in depth of the trench.
This is the seventh espedisi held as part of HADEEP - a collaborative research project between the University of Aberdeen Oceanlab and Tokyo University of Marine Research Institute, with support from the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere (Niwa), New Zealand.
The team has investigated HADEEP extreme depths throughout the world for 3 years. Their findings to date have included fishing with a camera in the world's deepest for the first time.
These recent discoveries provide new insight into the depth where the fish survive and diversity of the population who could be in the dots deepest oceans all over the world.
Dr Alan Jamieson of Oceanlab University of Aberdeen, who led the expedition, said: "Our findings, which reveal the diverse and abundant species at depths that were previously considered to be devoid of fish, will prompt a rethinking of the population in extreme depths of the sea.
"The expedition was triggered by our findings in 2008 and 2009 in Japan and New Zealand, where we found a new species known as Liparids snailfish - the trenches without habitat in Japan and New Zealand at a depth of about 7000 meters - with their respective trenches become a separate residence for a unique fish species.
"To test whether this species will be found in all trenches, we repeat our experiments on the other side of the Pacific Ocean in Peru and Chile, about 6,000 miles from our last observation." What we found is that indeed there are other unique species that live, snailfish at a depth of 7000 meters - species entirely new to science, which never caught or seen before.
"Species-cusk eel - known as Ophidiids - also gathered in front of our cameras and start fighting over food (bait on camera) for 22 hours - the entire duration of the deployment.
"Further studies are needed to decipher whether this also-cusk eel species entirely new that we have discovered.
"Our investigation also revealed species of carrion-eating crustaceans - known as the Amphipod - that previously we did not know was in this depth in large numbers.
"These creatures are like big shrimp in a particular group, called Eurythenes, generally much larger and more in the trenches than ever found before."
Dr Niamh Kilgallen, an Amphipod of Niwa said: "The abundance of large Amphipod alone is remarkable, especially at depths of 7000, and 8000 meters are much deeper than that have been found in other trenches. This raises the question of why and how they can live in this trench so deep but not in other places. "
Dr Toyonobu Fujii, marine fish expert from Aberdeen University said, "How deep can fish live has long been an interesting question, and the results of this expedition has provided more insight into our understanding of the global distribution of fish in the ocean."
Dr Jamieson added: "These findings encourage the re-evaluation of the diversity and abundance of life at extreme depths. Furthermore, it is clear that each of the deep trench around the world set a unique assembly of animals can differ greatly from trench to trench. Isolation of each trench parallels with the theory of evolution describes the archipelago made famous by Darwin's finches. "HADEEP The project is funded by the Nippon Foundation, Japan, and NERC, UK
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