Snailfish sets Guinness World Record for deepest observed and caught fish


Snailfish, like the ones shown here at a depth of over 24,000 feet, is the deepest observed and caught fish, according to Guinness World Records. Photo by University of Western Australia/Press Release


April 4 (UPI) -- Researchers in Japan set a new record for the deepest-caught and observed fish in the world, Guinness World Records confirmed Tuesday.

Researchers, from the University of Western Australia and Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, observed a Pseudoliparis, or snailfish, at a depth of 27,349 feet in the Izu-Ogasawara Trench off the coast of Japan.

In August, the snailfish was filmed approaching a camera that had been set up with bait to lure deep-sea fish.

The same researchers were able to physically catch two P. belyaevi snailfish at a depth of 26,247 feet, the deepest any fish has ever been caught.

The lead researcher on the project, Alan Jamieson, of the University of Western Australia, is considered a leading voice on deep sea or "hadal" organisms and holds world records for observing the world's deepest octopus at 22,825 feet, and the world's deepest squid, at 20,381 feet.

"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.

Jamieson told Guinness that he reasoned fish could survive at deeper depths in warmer waters and postulated that the sea trenches off Japan would likely host some of the world's deepest sea creatures.
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"Two years ago, we published a paper on all ultra-deep-sea fish and concluded that the deepest is likely off Japan as the trenches there're both deep enough and slightly warmer than the previous record in the Mariana Trench, and hey presto, there it was," Jamieson told the Guinness Book of World Records.