GO DEEP!

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Many parts of Earth’s oceans are still largely unexplored and the deeper you go the more mysteries are waiting to be unlocked. The deepest stretch of the ocean, the Mariana Trench, is populated by strange species that look bizarre and otherworldly compared to the animals we see closer to the surface and new research has revealed a completely new species of fish that ventures deeper than any other and it sure is strange.

 

The Mariana snailfish looks a lot like a big tadpole, but it can live its life at conditions that would completely crush any amphibian. The fish was discovered using sturdy cameras and small traps which, because of the distance, took four full hours to sink from the surface.

 

The creature is a true masterpiece of nature and it’s apparently thriving in its deep home. The specimens observed by the expedition crew were all incredibly healthy and appeared well nourished, which the team attributes to the fact that predators are sparse and food is plentiful at such incredible depths.

 

“Snailfishes have adapted to go deeper than other fish and can live in the deep trenches. Here they are free of predators and the funnel shape of the trench means there’s much more food,” Thomas Linley of Newcastle University, co-author of the study, explains. “There are lots of invertebrate prey and the snailfish are the top predator. They are active and look very well-fed.”

 

With milky, semi-transparent skin and a relatively featureless body, the Mariana snailfish is perfectly adapted for life where sunlight fails to reach. It is completely scaleless and uses its long tail to propel it through the water and it feeds on small crustaceans and other tiny prey.

 

Upon studying a few of the specimens that were brought up from the deep, the researchers were able to declare the fish an entirely new species. Video recorded of the fish living at a depth of 26,686 feet below the surface is the confirmation scientists needed to declare it the deepest fish in the oceans.

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You never know what's lurking under the water until you look.

 

In the depths of Lake Van, the largest lake in Turkey, a group of divers just discovered a lost castle.

 

The underwater fortress is approximately 3,000 years old, according to Turkish publications.

 

Photographer Tahsin Ceylan, who headed up the diving team, and told the Daily Sabah that local rumors suggested ruins could be found beneath the surface of the lake, which located in the far east of the country. But archaeologists and museum officials said there was probably nothing.

 

Ceylan and two divers went ahead (and under) anyway, and what they found is pretty breathtaking.

 

The site of the ruins covers about one square kilometer, with walls that top 10 feet in some places. Since no excavation has occurred, no one knows exactly how far below the lake floor the structures go.

 

The stones used to make the walls would most likely date the ruins to the Urartian civilization, an Iron Age kingdom that was centered around the lake. Over the past few thousand years, Lake Van has reportedly risen several hundred meters.

 

The lake itself covers approximately 1,450 square miles, and is already a tourist destination. But Ceylan told the Hurriyet Daily News that he expects the underwater ruins to draw new visitors, both tourists and archaeologists.

 

"As the lake waters rose, people withdrew but the structures stayed there. Even though most of them are in ruins, they are still there," Ceylan said.

 

 

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Argentina's navy says it's trying to make a visual inspection of another object that registered on a sonar search for remains of a submarine that vanished 18 days ago with 44 crew members aboard.

 

Navy spokesman Enrique Balbi told a news conference on Sunday that the new object was detected at a depth of 3,100 feet (950 meters). Balbi earlier said that inspection of another object by a Russian submersible revealed it was the wreck of a fishing vessel.

 

The search is taking place near the last known location of the ARA San Juan before it went silent off the Atlantic coast on Nov. 15.

 

The navy said on Thursday that it is no longer looking for survivors, although a multinational operation will continue searching for the vessel.