Chief scientist Tim O'Hara with the science team on the 'Abyssal Express', the bus from Launceston airport to the Port of Bell Bay. Image: Asher Flatt

The science team meets in the ship's dining room. Image: Asher Flatt

The RV Investigator heads out from Bell Bay Port. Image: Asher Flatt

Heading for the abyss! The ocean view from the RV Investigator. Image: Asher Flatt

The beam trawl being deployed from the RV Investigator. Image: Asher Flatt

John Pogonoski of the CSIRO Australian National Fish Collection photographs one of the first fish sampled on the voyage: Image: Asher Flatt

A hermit crab caught at 2500 m depths off NSW. Image: Robert Zugaro

A squat lobster and brittle star on a clump of rope pulled up from the deep sea. Image: Robert Zugaro

The beam trawl being deployed from the RV Investigator. Image: Asher Flatt

Marc Eleaume of Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris and Jasmine Bursic of Deakin University, Victoria, sorting the catch. Image: Asher Flatt

Rat fish and other sampled by the beam trawl. Image: Asher Flatt

A tripod fish. Image: Asher Flatt

Little squid, Abraliopsis. Image: Jérôme Mallefet