Scientists break record for the deepest fish ever found in the ocean

WASHINGTON (TND) — Scientists from Australia and Japan have set a new record for the deepest fish ever recorded in the ocean.

Check out a video of the fish below and photos in the gallery above or by clicking here.

In August, the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop went on a two-month expedition exploring trenches around Japan in the Pacific Ocean to study deep fish populations. While filming, the team stumbled upon a new snailfish species in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench at a whopping 8,336 meters (over 27,000 feet) down.

Scientists collected two fish from traps 8,022 meters deep. The capture of the snailfish, Pseudoliparis belyaevi, also marks the first fish to be collected from depths greater than 8,000 meters. They were previously only seen at a depth of 7,703 meters.

University of Western Australia Professor Alan Jamieson collaborated with a team from the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology to deploy the baited cameras and try to get a closer glimpse at mysterious ocean-dwelling creatures.

We have spent over 15 years researching these deep snailfish; there is so much more to them than simply the depth, but the maximum depth they can survive is truly astonishing," Jamieson said in the news release.

Although there's a large population of fish living at these depths, the snailfish that broke the record for the deepest ever found was a small specimen.

"Snailfish tend to be the opposite of other deep-sea fish where the juveniles live at the deeper end of their depth range," scientists explained in the release.