What is Snailfish?

Why in news?

• Scientists dropped an autonomous “lander” camera into the Izu-Ogasawara Trench near Japan and filmed the snailfish.

Key facts about the Snailfish

• The Snailfish is also called a sea snail and it is a deep-sea fish.
• Features
  • There are over 400 known species of snailfish, and they range in size from just a few centimetres to nearly a meter in length.
  • They are Elongated, soft, tadpole-shaped fish with loose and scaleless, though sometimes prickly, skins. 
• They are well adapted to life in the extreme environment of the deep sea
• Snailfish are found in cold water in the North Atlantic, North Pacific, Arctic and Antarctic seas. 

About Izu-Ogasawara Trench

• It is located in the western Pacific Ocean, on the boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Pacific Plate.
• It is one of the most seismically active regions on Earth.
• The trench is formed by the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the Philippine Sea Plate.

Q1) What is an Ocean trench?

Ocean trenches are long, narrow depressions on the seafloor. These chasms are the deepest parts of the ocean—and some of the deepest natural spots on Earth.

Source: Scientists film deepest ever fish on seabed off Japan

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