First-Ever Footage of Haunting Barreleye Fish Captured Deep Beneath The Atlantic

Deep beneath the oceans' crashing waves lies a hidden landscape more alien than many of us could ever dream. Below the Atlantic Ocean lies the Doldrums Megatransform and Fracture Zone, a remote labyrinth of tectonic fractures where Earth's crust is constantly being reshaped across the boundary between two plates. Now, scientists have obtained a glimpse of its haunting, unexpected beauty. Using the remotely controlled underwater vehicle SuBastian and the autonomous underwater vehicle The Childlike Empress from the deck of the research vessel Falkor (too), a team led by marine scientist Aaron Micallef of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California has captured wonders human eyes have never seen. "This discovery shows why exploration still matters," Micallef says. "Even in the Atlantic Ocean, where plate boundaries have been studied for decades, there are still places where the first close look can reveal something entirely new. This expedition showed that even in one of the most remote corners of the ocean, our planet remains alive, dynamic, and full of surprises." The Doldrums covers roughly 60,000 square kilometers (23,000 square miles, about the size of Lake Michigan) of the Atlantic seafloor. It slices across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, part of the world's longest mountain chain, plunging thousands of meters into the abyssal zone. As with most of the deep ocean, not much exploration has been conducted in the region. But because it cuts across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, it offers an ideal natural laboratory for studying the geological processes that shape Earth's longest mountain chain. Micallef and his colleagues spent a month aboard Falkor (too) using SuBastian and The Childlike Empress to conduct field research. Papers on the findings are yet to be published, but the initial glimpse is extraordinarily exciting. The team found not one, but two never-before-seen hydrothermal fields at a depth of nearly 4,000 meters (13,123 feet). These are places where heat and chemicals seep from Earth's interior into the ocean, creating oases of life, far beyond the reach of sunlight. Even more excitingly, both appear to be vents associated with serpentinization, a chemical reaction between seawater and the igneous mineral peridotite that produces hydrogen and other reduced chemicals that fuel deep-sea microbial ecosystems. Just a handful of hydrothermal fields are known to be associated with serpentinization, including the famous Lost City hydrothermal field. Because of how well they support life, scientists are keen to study them, not just for what they can tell us about our own planet, but also for the possibility of life on other worlds, such as ocean moons like Europa and Enceladus. "Serpentinization is a process in which seawater reacts with minerals in rocks, producing heat and chemical energy that allow life to thrive in the deep ocean without sunlight, so a better understanding of these systems could provide clues for finding life on other planets," says Jyotika Virmani, executive director of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. These hydrothermal vents were crawling with life – swarming shrimp, ghostly crabs, and delicate anemones waving their tentacles in the current, while heat shimmered through vents in the chimneys on which they perched. Other surprises also emerged from the darkness. Of particular note was a first-ever sighting of a particular type of barreleye fish that lives in the twilight, hundreds to thousands of meters deep. The fish, spotted at 710 meters, belonged to a species named Winteria telescopa, which had never been filmed before in its natural habitat, according to the Schmidt Ocean Institute. This matters. Barreleye fish are known for their extremely odd ocular arrangement consisting of two tubular eyes capped with light-sensitive lenses, all enclosed within the transparent, fluid-filled dome of the head. This forehead dome is very delicate and collapses when the fish is hauled from the water. For a long time, scientists didn't even know the dome existed. Only by observing these animals in their natural habitat can scientists understand this bizarre adaptation. At a much greater depth of 3,634 meters, the researchers were treated to two encounters with one of the eeriest denizens of the deep, the bigfin squid, belonging to the genus Magnapinna. Related: Ghostly Creature Deep in The Ocean Is Like Nothing We've Seen Before More detail on these findings will take time to emerge. But even before new scientific papers are published, the expedition has already offered a remarkable reminder of just how little we know about our own planet. "We arrived searching for vents, faults, and seamounts. We leave with something even more valuable: a deeper understanding of ecosystems in one of the least explored regions of the Atlantic Ocean," says marine scientist Paula Zapata Ramirez of the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia. "Every sample, every image, and every discovery brings us one step closer to understanding the hidden parts of our planet." This article was fact-checked by Clare Watson and edited by Peter Dockrill. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know.