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Scientists have had the first look at the life that thrives in one of the deepest spots
in the ocean. An expedition to the unexplored New Hebrides
trench in the Pacific has revealed that cusk eels and crustaceans teem more than 7,000m
(23,000ft) down. The team used an unmanned lander fitted with
cameras to film the deep-sea creatures. The scientists said the ecology of this trench
differed with other regions of the deep that had been studied.
"We're starting to find out that what happens at one trench doesn't necessarily represent
what happens in all the trenches," said Dr Alan Jamieson, from Oceanlab at the University
of Aberdeen, UK, who carried out the expedition with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research in New Zealand. There are more than 30 deep-sea trenches around
the world, and most of these narrow fissures in the seafloor lie in the Pacific Ocean.
Until this expedition, the depths of New Hebrides trench, which sits about 1,500km (1,000 miles)
north of New Zealand, had not been explored. The footage captured by the team during the
30-day voyage at the end of 2013 shows large, grey cusk eels, some 1m-long, chomping on
the bait that had been attached to the lander. The fish mingle with large, bright red prawns
scrabbling around on the sandy seabed, which plunges down to 7,200m at its deepest point.