Fish and crustaceans live under massively thick ice shelf in Antarctica

Researchers drilled a hole through the Ross Ice Shelf (740 meters!) in Antarctica, lowered a robot with a camera down the hole, and were amazed with what they saw. The hole drilled was 840 meters from the ice shelf's outer edge where sunlight hits the ocean water.  Eight days after no life was seen through the camera, a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) spotted thin, translucent fish, red crustaceans, and other species of fish and invertebrates.  Microbiologists were excited because some smaller organisms must support these fish and invertebrates so far from a source of sunlight.  It could be that there are microbes that feed on ammonium and methane, protists eat the microbes, crustaceans eat the protists, and fish eat the crustaceans and other fish. Scientists were able to catch a few of the crustaceans with a jerry-rigged lobster trap, but haven't been able to catch the fish.

The environment the scientists worked in was not close to one of the permanent research stations.  Workers had to tow sleds with 400 tons of equipment and fuel to the locations, and ski-mounted planes dropped other people at the site.

The camera provided the first view that people have seen of the zone where a glacier goes from resting on bedrock to floating on seawater.  A probe with sensors was lowered (by my former UCSC earth science professor Slawek Tulaczyk!) through another drilled hole so it can monitor temperatures and ice sheet movement for the next several years.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/discovery-fish-live-beneath-antarctica/