Celebrate World Ocean Month with 6 minutes of remarkable deep-sea fishes

Ultrablack skin and extraordinary eyes adapted to the dark, undulating bodies and flickering tails—the ocean's midwater is home to a dazzling diversity of fishes. To celebrate World Ocean Month, dive in and meet some of the spectacular fish species that we’ve encountered over nearly four decades of ocean exploration.

The midwater is a sprawling expanse of open water that lies between the sunlit surface and the deep seafloor. As you descend beneath the ocean’s surface, sunlight turns to twilight. Dive even deeper, and darkness pervades in a realm without sunlight, boundaries, or hiding places called the midnight zone. The midwater is the largest habitat on Earth—but the least explored.

MBARI scientists and engineers are developing and deploying innovative technologies to understand how human actions affect deep-sea animals and ecosystems from the twilight zone to the abyssal seafloor. With advanced robots, we can study these waters in ways we never could before, but even after 38 years, we’ve barely scratched the surface of understanding this fascinating habitat and the life that calls it home.

Exploring our blue backyard has revealed our connection to the ocean—⁠how it sustains us and how our actions affect its future. MBARI scientists,⁠ engineers, communications staff, and marine operations crew are driven by⁠ a curiosity to learn more about the ocean and a passion to protect its future. The ocean needs our help. All life, including us, depends on a healthy ocean.

Learn more about these and other fascinating animals of the deep: https://www.mbari.org/education/anima...

Producer/editor: Megan Bassett
Production team: Larissa Lemon, Kyra Schlining, Nancy Jacobsen Stout, Susan von Thun
Music: Meditation Music Relax Calm Relaxation Background Documentary Nature Spa by LASHAMUSIC

Animals in order of appearance:
0:00 Whiptail gulper eel (Saccopharynx lavenbergi) | 1,296 meters (4,252 feet)
0:22 Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta) | 952 meters (3,123 feet)
0:36 Pacific hake (Merluccius productus) | 597 meters (1,959 feet)
0:55 Swarthy snaketooth fish (Chiasmodon subniger) | 1,074 meters (3,524 feet)
1:11 Pacific grenadier (Coryphaenoides acrolepis-filifer complex) | 2,702 meters (8,865 feet)
1:26 Bobtail eel (Cyema atrum) | 1,917 meters (6,289 feet)
1:44 Northern giant seadevil anglerfish (Ceratias holboelli) | 486 meters (1,594 feet)
1:56 Midwater eelpout (Melanostigma pammelas) | 756 meters ( 2,480 feet)
2:15 Leptocephalus eel larva | 352 meters (1,155 feet)
2:25 King-of-the-salmon (Trachipterus altivelis) | 211 meters (692 feet)
2:57 Pacific viperfish (Chauliodus macouni) | 656 meters (2,152 feet)
3:18 Whalefish (order Stephanoberyciformes) | 2,013 meters (6,604 feet)
3:30 Medusafish (Icichthys lockingtoni) | 515 meters (1,690 feet)
3:52 Black seadevil anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) | 569 meters (1,867 feet)
4:10 Sawtooth eel (Serrivomer sp.) | 820 meters (2,690 feet)
4:19 Longfin dragonfish (Tactostoma macropus) | 910 meters (2,986 feet)
4:35 Stout owlfish (Pseudobathylagus milleri) | 1,357 meters (4,452 feet)
4:44 Smalleye snipe eel (Avocettina bowersii) | 1,033 meters (3,389 feet)
5:05 Dollar hatchetfish (Sternoptyx sp.) | 784 meters (2,572 feet)
5:16 Tadpole snailfish (Nectoliparis pelagicus) | 569 meters (1,867 feet)
5:40 Twospine bigscale (Scopelogadus bispinosus) | 950 meters (3,117 feet)
5:57 Barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) | 580 meters (1,903 feet)
6:07 Whiptail gulper eel (Saccopharynx lavenbergi) | 1,059 meters (3,474 feet)