>>486545856>>486544216>>486529223The way I see it is this. Our exploration of the Mariana Trench and places of comparable depth is vastly minimal. Especially when you consider the method we use to explore places of insanely high pressure. We put a camera in a box able to withstand the abuse and then trawl along the bottom filming what's directly in front with a high powered light. The problem is that the view of these vehicles are extremely limited. Yes we've only seen very small creatures huddled around geothermal vents so far, but when you consider the way aquatic creatures move at higher depths, it's not unreasonable to imagine that the larger creatures would stay entirely out of the view of our cameras. Especially when the camera view is saturated with light. I think it's plausible that evolving to survive in extremely high pressure without any light whatsoever may give a creature an adverse reaction to UV rays. So they swim clear of the light and stay well out of the way of the cameras.
Just imagine James Cameron in his challenger deep with several hulking leviathan or other horrifying creatures swimming directly behind him en mass avoiding the light that is harmful to their darkness evolved dermal layer while he films shitty little shrimp around a heat vent.
I think if we put the same amount of money into ocean exploration as we did into space exploration, we would have made some very significant finds by now.