A close-up of the 'extremely toxic' fishes off New Zealand

A series of pictures of new "extremely toxic" fishes were announced by New Zealand scientists after a survey of waters off the coast.

Scientists at the New Zealand National Institute of Atmospheric Research and Research (NIWA) have been studying and catching many species of fish they have discovered below 2km deep. Among them, many fish species were first enrolled in New Zealand's national fish collection.

NIWA has deployed to install 8 fishing stations at different depths in the Chatham Rise seabed area - a network of highland, mountain, mountain, gorge and lower plains networks. country.

Soft white fish

Scientists have caught a soft-bodied white fish with small eyes and no backbone. The body length of soft-bodied white fish is about 32cm.

They live at a depth of 2.3km - the largest ever depth NIWA ever discovered. Because most of the previous studies and fishing conducted by NIWA were only 1.2 km deep.

"We know very little about the abundance and distribution of fish species that live below this depth," said Peter McMillan, a scientist at NIWA .

At a depth of 2.1 km, scientists not only found the soft-bodied white fish, but they also found many smaller species such as manta rays, ballhead fish, rat-tail fish and eels.

Shaded fish with 2 colors

Catched at a depth of 2.4km, this Norman 2-colored fish head has never been discovered in previous studies by New Zealand scientists.

Only about 10 species of the ballhead family have lips that look like beaks, sharp curved teeth and small eyes. A number of species in the first fish family are currently in the collection of museums around the world.

During the expedition, NIWA researchers were quick to capture images of any fish they encountered then proceeded to catch, research and chill.

All rare species discovered by NIWA will be included in Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington.

Ray

Richardson stingray is one of the fish caught at four stations of NIWA at various depths. This fish is extremely rare because they live at a great depth.

Catching them is not easy work because scientists have to drop a net up to 20m into the seabed and it takes more than 3 hours to pull the fish and net onto the boat.

Ball head fish

According to NIWA, this fish is still unidentified and is classified as a fish head. They live mainly in depths of more than 1km under the sea.

Scientists hardly have any information about this particular fish except to discover their favorite food source is shrimp, jellyfish, seaweed and comb jellyfish.

The eel is not eye

Eyeless eels are caught at a depth of 2.4 km. They carry shorter body sizes than other eels. In addition, they specialize in hunting at night and live in extremely deep waters.

Like all black-spot eels, many species living in deep-sea depths evolve with small eyes in an environment where sunlight is almost impossible to reach.

To cope with extreme water pressure, many fish species have had to develop ultralight skeletons made of cartilage instead of bone.

Mouse tail fish

Never caught in all New Zealand waters, however, in this expedition, NIWA scientists have captured a giant white ratfish of the Coryphaenoides family at a depth of 2.6 km.

The "miraculous" mouse tail makes it easy for them to find food in the deep black sea. In particular, their reproductive speed is very slow, usually they only reproduce when they are over 30 years old.

Reference: Nationalgeographic