The Deepest Fish Ever Filmed Hits an Invisible Wall

In 2022, a lander dropped into a trench off Japan filmed a tiny snailfish at 8,336 meters, the deepest fish ever recorded. Below it, the trench keeps going, and amphipods, sea cucumbers and single-celled life carry on all the way to the bottom of the ocean. But no fish has ever been reliably seen there. We follow the expedition that set the record, how a record that grew for fourteen years bunched up just past eight kilometers, what 840 atmospheres of pressure really does to a body, how jelly-like, soft-boned snailfish are built for the deep, and the molecule behind the smell of fish that may set a chemical limit around 8,200 to 8,400 meters. Plus why slightly warmer water may let fish go a little deeper, and who lives below the wall. ⏱️ Chapters 0:00 A fish at the edge 0:44 The record 3:35 The weight of the ocean 4:53 Built for the squeeze 6:29 A molecule called TMAO 9:40 Life below the wall 11:22 The wall 📚 Sources Jamieson, A. J., Maroni, P. J., Bond, T., Niyazi, Y., Kolbusz, J., Arasu, P. & Kitazato, H. (2023). New maximum depth record for bony fish: Teleostei, Scorpaeniformes, Liparidae (8336 m, Izu-Ogasawara Trench). Deep-Sea Research Part I 199, 104132. doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2023.104132 University of Western Australia (2023). Scientists break new record after finding world's deepest fish. https://uwa.edu.au/news/article/2023/... Guinness World Records (2023). Snailfish sink to new lows to extend their record as the world's deepest fish. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/... Metcalfe, T. (2023). Deepest Fish Discovered More Than Five Miles below the Sea Surface. Scientific American, 7 April 2023. https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar... Yancey, P. H., Gerringer, M. E., Drazen, J. C., Rowden, A. A. & Jamieson, A. (2014). Marine fish may be biochemically constrained from inhabiting the deepest ocean depths. PNAS 111(12), 4461-4465. doi:10.1073/pnas.1322003111 Yancey, P. H. & Siebenaller, J. F. (2015). Co-evolution of proteins and solutions: protein adaptation versus cytoprotective micromolecules and their roles in marine organisms. Journal of Experimental Biology 218(12), 1880-1896. doi:10.1242/jeb.114355 Fujii, T., Jamieson, A. J., Solan, M., Bagley, P. M. & Priede, I. G. (2010). A large aggregation of liparids at 7703 meters and a reappraisal of the abundance and diversity of hadal fish. BioScience 60(7), 506-515. doi:10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.6 Linley, T. D. et al. (2016). Fishes of the hadal zone including new species, in situ observations and depth records of hadal snailfishes. Deep-Sea Research Part I 114, 99-110. JAMSTEC (2017). Filming of the deepest fish at 8,178 m in the Mariana Trench. https://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/about/pre... Jamieson, A. J. & Yancey, P. H. (2012). On the validity of the Trieste flatfish: dispelling the myth. Biological Bulletin 222(3), 171-175. Gerringer, M. E., Drazen, J. C., Linley, T. D., Summers, A. P., Jamieson, A. J. & Yancey, P. H. (2017). Distribution, composition and functions of gelatinous tissues in deep-sea fishes. Royal Society Open Science 4(12), 171063. doi:10.1098/rsos.171063 Wang, K. et al. (2019). Morphology and genome of a snailfish from the Mariana Trench provide insights into deep-sea adaptation. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3, 823-833. doi:10.1038/s41559-019-0864-8 Gerringer, M. E., Linley, T. D. et al. (2017). Pseudoliparis swirei sp. nov.: a newly-discovered hadal snailfish (Scorpaeniformes: Liparidae) from the Mariana Trench. Zootaxa 4358(1), 161-177. Priede, I. G. et al. (2006). The absence of sharks from abyssal regions of the world's oceans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 273, 1435-1441. doi:10.1098/rspb.2005.3461 Kobayashi, H. et al. (2012). The hadal amphipod Hirondellea gigas possessing a unique cellulase for digesting wooden debris buried in the deepest seafloor. PLoS ONE 7(8), e42727. Jamieson, A. J. et al. (2019). Microplastics and synthetic particles ingested by deep-sea amphipods in six of the deepest marine ecosystems on Earth. Royal Society Open Science 6, 180667. doi:10.1098/rsos.180667 Todo, Y., Kitazato, H., Hashimoto, J. & Gooday, A. J. (2005). Simple foraminifera flourish at the ocean's deepest point. Science 307, 689. Stewart, H. A. & Jamieson, A. J. (2019). The five deeps: the location and depth of the deepest place in each of the world's oceans. Earth-Science Reviews 197, 102896. ⚠️ The animations are original, drawn in code for this channel. Facts are checked against the sources above; corrections are pinned in the comments. Narration voice is AI-generated. #DeepSea #Snailfish #MarianaTrench