When an unfamiliar pink fish appeared more than 10,000 feet down in the outer reaches of Monterey Canyon in 2019, scientists with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute were able to document the moment via their remotely operated vehicle, but they weren’t sure what to make of it.

But after years of meticulous research, teams of scientists, including MBARI senior scientist Steven Haddock, who led that 2019 expedition, have confirmed what that footage suggested: The deep-sea creature was a never-before-seen species. 

The fish, now known as the bumpy snailfish (Careproctus colliculi), is one of three new species discovered off the California coast, alongside the dark snailfish (Careproctus yanceyi) and the sleek snailfish (Paraliparis em). It was recently described by researchers from SUNY Geneseo and scientists from the University of Montana and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. 

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SUNY Geneseo associate professor Mackenzie Gerringer, who has done extensive research on deep-sea snailfishes, explained to SFGATE that the process of confirming a new species is anything but instant. She said that she and her fellow researchers often start the process by assuming they are wrong, working through accounts, comparisons and studies until the evidence proves........

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