New Species Found

  The findings by a team of marine biologists from Aberdeen, Tokyo and New Zealand, have found new life in the deepest places on Earth and the global distribution of fish in our oceans.  The expedition to the Peru/Chile trench in the South East Pacific Ocean revealed a new species of snailfish living at 7000m, never before caught or captured on camera.  Mass groupings of cusk eels and large crustacean scavengers were also discovered living at these depths for the first time.  During the three week expedition on the research vessel Sonne, the team of scientists employed deep-sea imaging technology, including an ultra-deep free-falling baited camera system, to take a total of 6000 images between 4500 and 8000 meters deep within the trench.  The expedition is the seventh to take place as part of HADEEP, a collaborative research project between the University of Aberdeen's Oceanlab and the University of Tokyo's Ocean Research Institute, with support from New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric research institute (NIWA).  The HADEEP team has been investigating extreme depths across the globe for 3 years. Their findings to date have included capturing the world's deepest fish on camera for the first time. (Science Daily)