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China-led Pacific Ocean dive reveals deep-sea secrets in Kermadec Trench
- Fascinating marine animals spotted by Chinese and New Zealand researchers thousands of metres below the surface
- Expedition in China-made submersible perhaps ‘most efficient scientific sampling’ in depths below 6,000 metres, New Zealand marine ecologist says
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A red anglerfish swimming upside down, anemones with extra-long stalks, and plain, no-spikes sea cucumbers crawling along the sea floor with not a care in the deep-ocean world.
These are but some of the rarely seen deep-sea creatures living thousands of metres down in the ocean – where the sun does not reach and food is scarce – while withstanding water pressure that could be up to a thousand times greater than at the surface.
They were among the fascinating marine animals spotted by a team of researchers from China and New Zealand as they dived to one of the deepest places on Earth – the Kermadec Trench in the South Pacific Ocean.
“It’s perhaps the most efficient scientific sampling regime in the hadal depths [below 6,000 metres] that exists at the moment,” said David Bowden, a marine ecologist from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research who was part of the expedition.
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Strange sea creatures spotted in Kermadec Trench, one of the deepest places on Earth
Strange sea creatures spotted in Kermadec Trench, one of the deepest places on Earth
Located north of New Zealand, the Kermadec Trench stretches at its deepest point to about 10,000 metres (32,808 feet) below the ocean surface.
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