Russian mini-subs scoop up unknown fauna instead of sunken treasure

Unusual shrimp-like creatures, amphipods, have been discovered during a dive in East Siberia's Lake Baikal, a member of the Russia’s MIR submersibles expedition told RIA Novosti on Saturday.

Amphipods usually have long antennae on their heads. However, the species found on the bottom of the world's deepest lake on Friday, with bodies of up to 8cm long, lacked such antennae.

"Amphipods clear the lake of dead organic matter," the source said.

During another dive near Cape Polovinny earlier on Friday the expedition failed to find the remains of a train known to have sunk in the lake during the 1917-1923 Russian Civil War, because of poor visibility in the water.

The MIR submersibles, built in Finland in 1987 and owned and operated by the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Oceanology, are two of only five manned submersibles in the world that can dive beyond 3,000m.

Over 49 worldwide expeditions have been conducted with MIR submersibles and their control center, the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh.

The main focus of the ongoing expedition involving the Mir-1 and Mir-2 submersibles, which resumed diving for the year on Monday, is on scientific research rather than artifact hunting.

Lake Baikal has a coastline of over 2,000 km and at its deepest points is 1,637 meters. The UNESCO world heritage site contains 83% of Russia's and 20% of the world's unfrozen freshwater.