This spiny crab was snapped 4kms down Rob Zugaro

Faceless fish, giant sea spiders and blobby sea pigs. These are just some of the weird creatures that have been uncovered during the first-ever deep-sea expedition along the east coast of Australia.

The discoveries were made by an international team of scientists led by Museums Victoria aboard the research ship Investigator, which is owned by Australia’s Marine National Facility. The ship set sail from Launceston, Tasmania on May 15 and reached its final destination in Brisbane, Queensland today.

During the one-month voyage, the ship tracked up the eastern edge of the Australian continental plate, where the ocean suddenly drops to 4-kilometres-deep. Fishing nets and trawling sleds were used to collect creatures at the bottom of this abyss.


More than one third of the invertebrates and some of the fishes found during the expedition are completely new to science.

A blob fish Rob Zugaro

This corallimorpharia is closely related to coral

A strange scotoplane – also known as a sea pig Asher Flatt