A new species of deep-sea fish over 1 meter in length has been discovered in Suruga Bay near Shizuoka Prefecture, a team of researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) and other organizations announced Monday.
The fish, a part of sekitori iwashi (slickheads) family, was named yokozuna iwashi, because it is the largest in the family and at the top of the food chain in deep-sea habitats. Yokozuna is a title for sumo champions while sekitori is a general term referring to sumo wrestlers whose ranks are between juryo and yokozuna.
In 2016, a team led by Yoshihiro Fujiwara, a principal researcher at the JAMSTEC, captured four deep-sea fish at a depth of 2,171 to 2,572 meters in Suruga Bay that were 122 to 138 centimeters long and weighed 15 to 25 kilograms. Subsequent genetic analysis and other studies revealed the fish were a new species in the family of slickheads.
The fish is characterized by its bright blue scales, the size of its eyes and head, which are small for the body, and the position of the dorsal fin. More than 90 species of this family had been identified in the world's deep sea, but their average length was about 30 to 40 centimeters.
Traces of predation on relatively large fish were found in the stomach of the fish, and an analysis of the amino acids in the fish's muscles revealed they are at the top of the food chain. The paper on the study results was published in the British scientific journal, Scientific Reports.
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