A "faceless fish" and other weird
sea creatures have been discovered by scientists during an expedition to
Australia's eastern abyss – a habitat 4,000 metres below the ocean which has
remained unexplored until now.The fish is 40 centimetres long and had only been seen once before by the pioneering scientific crew of HMS Challenger off Papua New Guinea in 1873.
"It hasn't got any eyes or a visible nose and its mouth is underneath," Tim O'Hara from Museums Victoria, the chief scientist of the mission, said in a statement.
The appearance of the fish is not so surprising. So far below water, it is pitch-dark and animals often have no eyes. They sometimes produce their own light through a process of bioluminescence.
Other strange-looking species
recovered by O'Hara and his colleagues include bright red spiky rock crabs, a
'dragon-fish', blind sea spiders and deep sea eels.
These discoveries are part
of a month-long mission aboard a research vessel called the Investigator to
undertake a series of deep water biodiversity surveys along Australia's east
coast.
Led by Museums Victoria,
the expedition will come to an end mid-June, after surveying 13 sites,
including seven marine reserves.
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