An eight-foot-long Oarfish has been filmed for the first time off the coast of Mexico, according to Business Insider.
The fish' scientific name is Regalecus glesne, it's the longest bony fish that's been discovered. This particular oarfish was estimated to be about eight feet long, or 2.55 meters, although the creature seemed to be missing some of it's tail, so it could have once been longer.
The fish does not swim in the way scientists would expect of a fish with a long serpentine body. Instead of swimming like an eel, the strange fish hangs vertically in the water. Scientists believe the oarfish does not have many natural predators to worry about, because the fish did not seem concerned about the lights from the recording device, reported Discovery News.
WATCH skip to about five minutes in for the best footage:
There have been claims that the Oarfish can grow to be a monstrous 49-feet long, but the longest one that has been documented was about 26 feet, according to Business Insider.
The fish is thought to live in deep water, "between 300 and 1000 feet below the surface."
Scientists have has trouble studying the elusive fish, so this new footage is very exciting. Most of the oarfish that have been studied in the past were either sick or dead and floating on the top of the water or washed up on a beach.
Scientists have, surprisingly, partnered with offshore drillers to allow them to send remote vehicles into water that would normally be too deep for human exploration.
The footage was taken at a depth of about 196 feet by a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) that was sent by the Scientific and Environmental ROV Partnership using Existing iNdustrial Technology (SERPENT Project), according to i09.
In 1996, a group of American servicemen found the 23-foot-long oarfish washed up on a San Diego beach.
The study was published in the Journal of Fish Biology: "Five in situ observations of live oarfish Regalecus glesne (Regakecidae) by remotely operated vehicles in the oceanic waters of the Northern gulf of Mexico."
