The fish was found at 200 to 2,000 meters below the surface.
The fish – called the ultra-black fish, which live anywhere between 200 to 2,000 meters below surface – are so dark that they often appear just as a silhouette, according to one of the authors, Alexander Davis, of the study, which was published in Current Biology.
“They look almost like something photoshopped out of whatever you’re looking at,” Davis said. “Out of the water it’s a little bit different cause they’re so shiny, but you can still tell they’re just incredibly black.” He described them as a “matte black.”
To qualify as ultra–black, a species must reflect less than 0.5% of the light that hits it.
They were able to capture the fish by dropping a large net down into the sea, anywhere between 200 to 2,000 meters below surface, and running it through the water.
“It’s likely there are many more of these super black deep sea fish out there,” he said. “The odds that we’ve captured every single ultra–black fish seems really slim.”