December 19, 2014 — Scientists have discovered a new species of fish that glides gently through the water on white, translucent wings 5 miles beneath the ocean surface.
It is the deepest living fish ever discovered.
"We were just blown away when we saw it," said Paul Yancey, a biology professor at Whitman College, Washington who studies how animals adapt to life in the deep sea. "Someone on the ship said it looks like a cross between a puppy, an angel and an eel."
The fish was first spotted in November during an international research cruise to the Mariana Trench — the deepest place on Earth.
The new fish, which has not yet been named, was discovered by accident. In the video above you can see it swimming around a series of tubes that were part of an instrument collecting mud samples from the sea floor.
The camera was supposed to be filming the core collecting, when suddenly this ghostly fish swam into view.
It is about 10 inches in length, and almost entirely transparent. The dense white part you can see is actually its skull, visible through its skin, Yancey said. It's lengthy, mostly see-through tail is probably made of gelatin.
Read the full story and watch the video at the Los Angeles Times