This fish, in the little-known family Aphyonidae, was found by a team aboard the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer at a depth of 2,500 meters (8,200 feet) in the Marianas Trench.

On July 10th, NOAA Scientists completed an exploration expedition into the deepest U.S. territorial waters in an area known as the Marianas Trench.  The trench is about 1,580 miles (2,550 kilometers) in length with an average width of 43 miles (69 kilometers).  The maximum verified depth is 6.831 miles at a small slot-shaped valley in its floor known as the Challenger Deep, at its southern end.  To explore these great depths under extreme atmospheric pressure requires special equipment and considerable funding. The expedition was performed with a vessel owned by the National Oceanic and MORE