The gulper eel grows to almost two meters long and is most commonly found at a depth of about 2,000 meters.
Gulper eels feed by expanding and engulfing prey in their pouchlike mouths.
A gulper eel's distensible stomach allows it to swallow prey two thirds its own size. The gulper eel has teeth, but another species, the umbrellamouth gulper eel, lacks teeth. The submarine canyon cuts across some 100 kilometers of seafloor, plunging to a depth of 3,000 meters where a channel leads to the deeper abyssal plain.