May 14, 2026 — The Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) released a new study finding that industrial-scale fishing has removed “substantial biomass from the ocean’s twilight zone” for several decades, casting doubt on the claim that this ecosystem remains unexploited.
The study, titled “Hidden in Plain Sight: Decades of Industrial-Scale Fishing in the Ocean’s Twilight Zone,” focuses on the “dark web” species, which WHOI refers to as “a poorly understood group of large midwater fishes” such as pomfrets and snake mackerels. These organisms that live in the mesopelagic zone, which is about 1,000-2,000 meters below the surface, remain largely uncovered in scientific studies and are regularly caught by commercial fisheries, according to the release.