The bestiary
Twenty creatures live in the ABYSSAL — real species, or grounded enough to be. Aggressive ones aren't evil; they're injured and scared. Hover a card to see the diagnosis.
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Famous for its anemone partnership and its stripes. Curious and bold enough to mistake a drifting bag for a jellyfish snack.
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One of the fastest-growing fish in the sea, prized for speed and color — and, too often, for the longline hooks it can't shake loose.
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A gentle filter-feeder with a wingspan that can top seven meters. Those wide, winglike fins are exactly what ghost nets love to catch.
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The ocean's apex predator, wrapped in family bonds and dialects passed down for generations. Even it isn't fast enough to dodge every hull.
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"Blacktip" circles fast and fakes charges when panicked. Hold still, cut the net, and she calms. Sharks aren't evil — they're scared.
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A living fossil with a slingshot jaw it fires forward to snatch prey. Rarely seen alive — bottom trawls bring far more of them to the surface than they should.
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Eel-like and ancient, almost unchanged for 80 million years. Deep trawling drags it into pressures and waters it was never built to survive.
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Pound for pound, the largest teeth of any fish in the sea. All that fearsome bite can't filter microplastic out of the water it breathes.
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Migrates hundreds of meters toward the surface every night, chasing the fading light. Naval sonar tests scramble the pressure senses it depends on to navigate home.
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Its transparent, fluid-filled head lets it stare straight up through its own skull to watch for silhouettes above. A close pass from research gear left that dome cracked.
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Its jelly-like body only holds its shape under crushing deep-sea pressure. Warming currents are pushing it toward waters it was never built to handle.
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Can swallow prey twice its own length whole. That same reflex means it swallows drifting plastic just as readily — with far worse results.
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Also called the pelican eel for its balloon-like jaw. That enormous mouth is no match for a ghost net drifting through the dark.
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Has the smallest brain-to-body ratio of any known vertebrate — there's little to do in a world with nothing but darkness and waiting. Sonar tests still rattle it badly.
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Its lure is the only light for miles. Microplastic glitters in the dark just like prey — and it swallows every bit.
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Balances motionless on three long fin rays, waiting for years in total stillness for a meal to drift by. A sinking debris field can snap that stance in an instant.
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A rattail built for the trench floor, patrolling some of the deepest mud on Earth. Long-lines built for shallower water still find their way down here.
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Translucent and gelatinous, built to survive pressure that would crush a submarine hull. Beautiful, fragile, and easy to overlook until it's hurt.
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For decades the deepest fish ever recorded, pulled from the Puerto Rico Trench at over 8,000 meters. Even record holders need a medic sometimes.
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The deepest-living fish ever filmed, thriving in the crushing dark of the Mariana Trench where almost nothing else survives. The ABYSSAL's quietest, hardest patient.