Violating the Benthic Treaty

The headline is only funny if you have read any of the Laundry series of books by Charles Stross, the best science fiction/horror writer I have ever read.  This fish is, however, a true horror from the deep, being found 7 kilometers down in a trench, using a baited camera rig made by a collaboration between Japan’s Ocean Research Institute and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research.  They found a supporting ecosystem feeding off carcasses of critters from warmer, shallower levels, but no Elder Gods this time.

You will love the name;  New Scientist reported it as a Sméagol.  The source press release doesn’t use that name, but I like it.

This is my blog, damn it.  It’s a Sméagol.