A bioluminescent viper fish. (Credit: Jérôme Mallefet) In a dark world of crushing pressures and barren landscapes, creatures we've never seen before, and, likely, couldn't even imagine, are swimming. The ocean's abyssal zone begins over two miles beneath surface; it's so deep that light never touches it. What little we know about it comes from sediment dredged up from the seafloor and brief snapshots captured by remotely operated submarines. This makes it a gold mine for marine biologists, for whom each rare glimpse beneath the waves offers up a bounty of new species and rare observations. An international team led by researchers from Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation will soon wrap up a month-long expedition exploring the deep seas off of Australia's east coast. There, a massive, yawning rift not far from the coastline serves as a prime target for abyssal research. In daily dispatches, the team has detailed the results of their research as they come in, offering up images of glowing starfish, toothy predators, slender-stalked crinoids and more, many of them new to science.