The snailfish, or Liparidae, is a species of fish. These fish live between 3,000 and 8,000 meters deep in the oceans of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian continents. Their sluggish, snail-like demeanor inspired their moniker.
Because of how they have changed over time, snailfish can handle both high pressure and cold temperatures. Because there isn’t much oxygen where they live, they don’t have a swim bladder and have a body made of gelatin that can handle the pressure of the deep sea.
There are more than 400 different kinds of snailfish. They are important predators and scavengers in the deep sea.Researchers are interested in them because they could be used to make new technologies, like materials that can withstand pressure for deep-sea exploration.
Deepest fish caught off on camera
The deepest fish ever caught was caught by a team of scientists from Australia and Japan who didn’t even need an extremely long fishing pole. A camera, some bait, and a submersible were all that was required. At a depth of 27,349 feet in 2023, the crew took a picture of a snailfish belonging to the genus Pseudoliparis that had previously been unidentified.
In 2018, The Mariana snailfish, the deepest fish ever seen on video, was filmed by scientists from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology. (Pseudoliparis swirei). At a depth of 8,178 meters (26,831 feet), they discovered the fish in the Mariana Trench.
Tiny and see-through, the Mariana snailfish is perfectly at home in the dark depths of the ocean. Its gelatinous nature lets it endure the intense pressures of the deep ocean, and it has no scales since they serve no purpose in the pitch-black environment. The researchers were taken aback by the presence of fish at such a great depth because they had assumed that no fish could survive in those conditions.
This finding changes how we think about how climate change affects the deep ocean and gives us new information about how deep-sea fish live and how well they can adapt.