Bizarre fish found in NZ close to ocean seafloor

NIWA scientists trawled deep – deeper than ever before – and found new-to-science fish close to the ocean seafloor during their latest research voyage.

The scientists went down 2730 metres from the research vessel Tangaroa, northwest of the Chatham Rise, to increase their knowledge of fish distribution, abundance, and ecology.

The trawls revealed truly weird and wonderful new-to-science and rare fishes: a flabby whalefish, three new slickheads, a juvenile Richardson's skate, large warty cusk-eel, new record of a white rattail, and several unidentified fishes.

Images NIWA and AAP.