Scientists in Australia have discovered a mysterious “faceless fish” that has not been seen for more than a century during a deep sea expedition off the east coast which reached depths of 13,000 feet
Faceless fish, giant sea spiders and blobby sea pigs. These are just some of the weird creatures that have been uncovered during the first-ever deep-sea expedition along the east coast of Australia.
The discoveries were made by an international team of scientists aboard the research ship Investigator, which is owned by Australia’s Marine National Facility. The ship set sail from Launceston, Tasmania on May 15 and reached its final destination in Brisbane, Queensland today.
During the one-month voyage, the ship tracked up the eastern edge of the Australian continental plate, where the ocean suddenly drops to 4-kilometres-deep. Fishing nets and trawling sleds were used to collect creatures at the bottom of this abyss.
More than one third of the invertebrates and some of the fishes found during the expedition are completely new to science.
RV Investigator is an Australian marine research vessel which was designed by RALion (joint venture between Robert Allan Ltd. and Alion Science and Technology). It was constructed in Singapore and is owned and managed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), through Australia's Marine National Facility, with its operations funded by the Australian Government to undertake oceanographic, geoscience, ecosystem and fisheries research.
