An international team of scientists has been in New Zealand, surveying the Kermadec Trench in the South Pacific Ocean.
It's a Danish-led project funded by the European Union.
The team is trying to learn more about the biodiversity of the trench, which is one of the 27 deepest trenches in the world.
"One of the great things about our marine environment is it's very large and it's also very diverse and so it's attractive to people from overseas institutes," said voyage leader Dr Ashley Rowden.
From their research vessel, the scientists - from seven different countries - sent down high-tech wire-operated equipment to take seabed samples.
They reached a depth of more than nine kilometres.
They are also claiming a world first.
"To operate wire instruments at deep depths is extremely difficult, and we believe this is going to represent the deepest ever box core sample ever taken the world."
Dr Ronnie Glud from Denmark said: "We do expect to find completely new species and completely new organisms in these samples."
The samples will now be analysed over the next few months.
By Arrun Soma
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