By: David Strege | April 16th, 2019

American explorer Victor Vescovo completed an historic submersible dive to one of the most isolated places on Earth, and the expedition captured video of a new species that had researchers “speechless.”

In the Triton submarine called Limiting Factor, Vescovo descended 23,596 feet into the deepest part of the Java Trench in the Indian Ocean, becoming the first human to dive to its depths.

Vescovo is attempting to reach the bottom of all the Earth’s oceans. This was his third dive as part of the Five Deeps Expedition and it occurred April 5, though it was just announced Tuesday in a news release.

At the bottom of the Java Trench, the team captured video footage of species never before seen by humans.

“From the sub, a new species of hadal snailfish was observed amongst many other bottom dwelling organisms, and the landers observed an extraordinary gelatinous animal—thought to be a stalked Ascidian, otherwise known as a Sea Squirt—which does not resemble anything seen before,” the expedition wrote in the release sent to For The Win Outdoors.

“Amongst many other rare and unique observations, the stalked Ascidian was a really significant moment,” said Dr. Alan Jamieson, the chief scientist of the Five Deeps Expedition. “It is not often we see something that is so extraordinary that it leaves us speechless. At this point we are not entirely sure what species it was, but we will find out in due course.”

Two other new species were also discovered but not disclosed.