YouTuber Barny Dillarstone spent two nights in the Indo-Pacific region looking for underwater species considered ‘new to science’, but made a discovery that left experts scratching their heads
08:29, 26 Nov 2025Updated 09:10, 26 Nov 2025
A man left experts floored when he dropped a camera into the ocean(Image: Getty Images)
Experts were left stunned after a man dropped a camera to the bottom of the Indonesian Ocean. YouTuber Barny Dillarstone has been sending cameras into the Indo-Pacific in a bid to discover species that are “new to science”.
So far his deep-sea cameras have captured “all sorts of strange nocturnal creatures”. The cameras have spotted rare marine life including spider crabs, moray eels, and even a scalloped hammerhead shark.
But Barny recently captured a species that has left experts scratching their heads. At 2am, just off the coast of Bali, Barny and his team captured a rare stingray, a species they say are traditionally based in Australia.
In his video, released in July, he said: “This is a deepwater ray and appears to be a species of stingaree from the urulophus genus, a group of small-bodied stingrays with paddle-like tails.
“The problem though is that stingarees aren’t really supposed to be in Indonesia with almost all of them being endemic to Australia. The Java stingray, once endemic to the nearby island of Java is supposedly extinct, and another species, the kai stingaree, is only known from two juveniles caught as bycatch in eastern Indonesia.”
Barny says he consulted with “some of the biggest shark experts in the world” who had no idea what the species his camera captured was. He questioned whether an Australian species had expanded its habitat, a kai stingaree had grown up, or it was the kai stingray.
Barny was left wondering if the species was indeed something entirely “new to science”. According to experts Ocean Census, there are thought to be around two million species in the deep sea.
So far scientists estimate they have identified around 250,000, leaving them wondering if there really are “plenty more fish in the sea”. It says scientists often struggle to reach depths sufficient to find new fish, plankton and molluscs under water.
The deepest point, the Mariana Trench, is around 10,935 metres under sea level. The official height of Mount Everest meanwhile is 8,848.86m above sea level.
Barny Dillarstone was exploring the Indonesian Ocean(Image: Getty Images)
The ocean’s expanse, covering 71 per cent of Earth, also means the scientists often struggle to find where to search for new species. And even when they do narrow down search areas, it is thought that many deep sea species are experts at camouflage.
These were issues shared by Barny and his crew during their “late-night” camera drops. Initially the rocky landscape meant the camera rig had a “shaky start” as it plunged 200m below the water, but Barny told viewers it “eventually found its footing”.
As well as the unidentified stingaree, the content creator also discovered plankton that he says he hadn’t seen before.
He added: “Alongside the crabs and eels, many strange planktonic creatures drifted past the camera, likely attracted to the light, confusing it for the moon.”