Trapped under 33 feet of ice, these miraculous creatures survive in perpetual night and freezing temperatures

Fish species thrive in hostile environment

Researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln made a miraculous discovery while drilling through a 2,430 foot thick sheet of ice in Antarctica, a fish that has been living in perpetual night underneath the ice sheet.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The researchers were drilling through the Ross Ice Shelf, roughly the size of France, and found these small fish in a pocket between the ice and the seafloor, about 33 feet deep.

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"I'm surprised," said Ross Powell, a geologist from Northern Illinois University. "You get the picture of these areas having very little food, being desolate, not supporting much life."

The waters where the fish were found were only about 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The lack of light and temperature are raising some new questions about where animals can thrive.

Over several hours they spotted 20 to 30 fish, and using a camera, were able to capture their discovery of the five-inch-long fishes on film.

"It was clear they were a community living there," Powell said. "Not just a chance encounter."

While these fish were the most abundant, they were not the only life forms that the team found. Two other, even smaller, types of fish were found, as were small crustaceans and even marine invertebrates.

Scientists believe that a possible food source for these fish is plankton, which grows in the surrounding waters and then is swept under the ice shelf. Chemical energy created underneath the ice shelf is another possibility; bacteria could live off of geothermal vents, starting a small food chain leading up to these larger creatures.

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"I have been investigating these types of environments for much of my career, and although I knew it would be difficult, I had been wanting to access this system for years because of its scientific importance," Powell said.

"Findings such as these-gaining an understanding of the ice sheet dynamics and its interaction with ocean and sediment, as well as establishing the structure of its ecosystem-are especially rewarding. It's a big pay-off in delayed gratification."

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