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Scientists have finally dived into the Pacific Ocean deep trench called New Hebrides that measures 7000 meters. What they found there took all the scientists by surprise: a group of sea creatures that were nothing like the ones that have been discovered in other deep trenches from other aquatic environments. The unexpected sea creatures were discovered by the Oceanlab team from the University of Aberdeen in association with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research from New Zealand. Both teams descended landers that had cameras attached to them between and explored the trenches between the eastern coasts of Australia and the islands of New Caledonia.
One of the Oceanlab team scientists, Dr. Alan Jamieson talks about the unexpected sea creatures they discovered deep down: “The surprising thing was that there was a complete and utter lack of one of the most common deep sea fish we would expect to see. Anywhere else around the Pacific Rim, around the trenches we’ve looked at, you see a lot of grenadiers — they are quite a conspicuous part of the deep-sea community. But when we went to the New Hebrides trench, we didn’t see a single one.” Dr. Jamieson further stated that they couldn’t find other common deep sea creatures like snail fish or big headed pink sea creatures. He also said that the multitude of Cusk eels surprised everyone on the team since this species of eels have only appeared in very few deep trenches from around the world.
Unexpected sea creatures found in the New Hebrides trenches take scientists by surprise
What they did find deep in the ocean in their expedition was an ecosystem of other creatures. The trench floor abounded with eel pouts, arrow-tooth eels, big red shrimps and thousands of other small crustaceans. The lander managed to collect some of these crustaceans and bring it up for further studies.
