Meet what could be the ocean's cutest, smiling fish, "like a puppy"

PACIFIC OCEAN (KFOR/Storyful) - Just more than 900 miles southeast of the Hawaiian Islands, researchers found themselves cooing over a "cartoonish," "smiley" fish, that one compared to a puppy.

"How did you get to be so cute?" one researcher said.

During a deep sea exploration mission in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument - a Pacific area nearly twice the size of Texas, researchers discovered a lone snailfish swimming 9,000 feet below the surface.

A variety of snailfish species can swim in various depths, one of which was recorded as the ocean's deepest-swimming fish, recently certified by Guinness World Records.

Video from the Ocean Exploration Trust and NOAA shows the fish swimming with its mouth slightly agape, appearing to smile for the camera.

"It's showing us its tummy, like a puppy, like you just want to get a little tummy rub," one researcher said. "I'm excited to have seen a snailfish. That's been on my bucket list."