Snailfish reeled in from 8000 metres deep by West Australian fishermen is deepest ever caught 

Western Australian scientists have helped bring in what has been described as the deepest fish ever caught on an expedition to the depths of the ocean.

The juvenile snailfish was one of two caught from a fall just over 8,000 meters deep in the Japan Trench, the University of Western Australia said.

The discovery was made during a two-month expedition from the research vessel DSSV Pressure Drop, which started in September last year.

Scientists from the Minderoo-UWA Deep Sea Research Center and the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology explored Japan’s Izu-Ogasawara and Ryukyu trenches in the Pacific Ocean as part of a study of deep-sea fish populations.

A snailfish filmed by the researchers on baited cameras at a depth of 8,336 m in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench is believed to be the deepest fish on film.

UWA professor Alan Jamieson said the abundance of life in the depths of the ocean was remarkable.

“The Japanese trenches were incredible places to explore. They are so rich in life, even at the very bottom,” Professor Jamieson said.

‘We’ve been researching these deep snail fish for over 15 years; there is so much more to them than just the depth, but the maximum depth they can survive is truly astounding.

“In other trenches, like the Mariana Trench, we found them at deeper and deeper depths, crawling over that 8,000 meter mark in less and less numbers, but around Japan they’re really quite abundant.”

Prior to the expedition, “no one had ever seen or caught a single fish from this entire trench,” Prof. Jamieson said.

The individual snailfish, purported to be the deepest ever found, were an “extremely small” juvenile that tended to live in the deepest part of their range.

A snailfish filmed by the researchers on baited cameras at a depth of 8336 meters in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench is believed to be the deepest fish on film