Trio of Deep-Sea Fish in the Western Pacific | Nautilus Live

Name: Trio of Deep-Sea Fish in the Western Pacific | Nautilus Live
Uploaded: 2026-09-04T15:29:14.761Z
Duration: 4 min 5 s
Channel: life of sea creatures

life of sea creatures

Sep 4, 2026 #seacreature #lifeofthesea #oceancreature

While diving ROVs Little Hercules and Atalanta 4,900 meters deep on the abyssal plain in the southwest region of the Wake Island EEZ, we came across a number of interesting deep-sea fish. First is a faceless cusk eel (Typhlonus nasus) that eerily floats in front of our cameras before giving chase. These abyssal fish are famous for lacking visible eyes in their bulbous head. Next, hanging out among the nodules, is a rarely observed cusk eel from the Leucicorus genus hosting a little parasite. After those two specimens, you’ll spot another type of benthic vertebrate: a deep-sea lizardfish (Bathysaurus mollis) that our team estimated to be around 50 cm long based on our ROV’s scaling lasers.

Located 2,138 nautical miles west of Honolulu, Wake Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is the northernmost atoll in the Marshall Islands geological ridge and the oldest and northernmost living atoll in the world. The refuge includes 495,515 acres of submerged lands and waters surrounding Wake Atoll out to 12 nautical miles and is home to hundreds of species of coral, fish, birds, and more wildlife.

Ocean Exploration Trust's Exploration of Wake Island's Deep-Sea expedition (NA181) is supported by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.

Exploration Vessel Nautilus is exploring unknown regions of the ocean, seeking out new discoveries while pushing the boundaries of STEAM education and technological innovation. Join us 24/7 for live video from the seafloor and the ship. To engage with Ocean Exploration Trust's team of explorers at sea, visit www.NautilusLive.org.
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What are you? Oh, it's coming right for us. It's one of the bigger things we've seen. Somebody said they scream so loud that they woke up their cat. Wow, this looks like another faceless cuscule. Float towards it. That's awesome. I like the purple-y. Come back. Purple-y kind of, so it's probably starting to... So it just doesn't have eyes at all, yeah? Sorry? It doesn't have eyes. Yeah, it doesn't have eyes anymore, so it still somewhat has the indents a lot of the time. It's got dimples. I'm gonna come up in the water column and look at it, so just watch your tether, please. Yep. We'll just get a nice... Faceless fish is wild. That's awesome. I do like its purple sheen that it had. Yeah. It was very cool. And I'll just swim back down. Nice. Yeah, so you saw one of those when you were piloting, Anna. Yeah. While I was piloting, I was like so focused on piloting that I like barely registered. Yeah, that it didn't have a face. Yeah. You said that and I was like, oh, you're right. Yeah, it's a bit unsettling, actually. Somebody said they scream so loud that they woke up their cat. With the faceless cuscule? Okay, well either way, say hi to your cat for me. Our apologies to your cat. Wow. Just your basic rat tail, or is it a lizard? Let's see if I set down. Let's see. Let's see what happens. Let's go for zoom. It's got a parasite. Oh, it's coming right for us. It's like, look at my parasite. Can you identify my parasite? Do you have a parasite? I've got a parasite. I bet you're jealous of my parasite. Yeah, I've got a little friend. Yeah, I don't want to see the parasite though. Eww. It's wrapped under you. Yeah, it's like a big parasite. Oh, hey. Oh, another friend. There's someone else. Alright, come wide. I always struggle with fish. They're so tricky. I struggle with like rat tail versus halosaur. They look so similar to me. I feel like that was a no. But I think halosaurs look more like surprised than rat tails. More surprised. We're like more like bashful, you know? I don't know. What are you? It's one of the bigger things we've seen. It's got a funky eye. Yeah, it's really big. Are you okay with a little zoom? What are you? Is that the lizard or something like that? Yeah. That's a big one. It has the elongated mouth. I see no movement. 50 centimeters or something. I think I saw that when I was looking up the lizard fish ones. It's so ghostly. It is. It took a move briefly just to try to get away and said, I'm done. It's giving me those same judgy eyes that my turtle gives me.