In 1831 he was appointed vicar to Kinn Church on the Norwegian north-west coast;[2] eight years later he transferred to Manger, just north of Bergen.

[4] Sars issued his first publication in 1829 – Bidrag til Søedyrenes Naturhistorie ("Contributions to the Natural History of Marine Animals"); a second followed in 1835 – Beskrivelser og Iagttagelser over nogle mærkelige eller nye i Havet ved den Bergenske Kyst levende Dyr af Polypernes, Acalephernes, Radiaternes, Annelidernes og Molluskernes Classer ("Descriptions and Observations of some strange or new animals found off the coast of Bergen, belonging to the ...").

The British zoologist Edward Forbes had issued a series of articles on biogeography, claiming that no animal life existed at depths greater than 300 fathoms (550 m).

[2] This find spurred academic interest in the deep sea and prompted the Challenger expedition and other similar ventures around the globe.

[1] Michael Sars was one of the last great descriptive zoologists who catalogued organisms more or less equally successfully in all major animal groups.