To their surprise, blue wavelengths of light revealed a green glow on the fish’s lure. But Clardy pumped the brakes-why not examine her in fluorescent light first? The team received the footballfish frozen and thawed her, with plans to inject the precious sample with formalin for preservation. It’s a rare find, with only around 30 other anglerfish specimens in collections worldwide, says Ludt. Only females grow to this size, as most males of anglerfish species are small, and often even latch on to females parasitically. Nicknamed “Spiny Babycakes” on Twitter, the specimen was about a foot long and probably lived between 1,000 and 4,000 feet deep. The new insights stem from Ludt and Clardy’s examination of a female Pacific footballfish that washed up to shore in Newport Beach, California and went viral on social media in May 2021. RARE FIND! Deep sea anglerfish washed up in Newport Beach on Friday morning! On Crystal Cove beach staff were alerted by beach visitor Ben Eslef and were able to retrieve this intact specimen. “Biofluorescence is pretty widespread actually in shallow water marine environments, but the fact that we’re seeing this in the deep sea where there is no ambient light makes this really fascinating,” he adds. “You could think of it as a manipulation-the light comes in one color and then gets emitted in a different color,” says Ludt. While the two qualities can be often confused, bioluminescent organisms produce light, while organisms with biofluorescence are able to change light. County (NHM)īut as the new study demonstrates, the Pacific footballfish ( Himantolophus sagamius) uses an additional trick to create its light shows: Biofluorescence. Credit: Courtesy of the Natural History Museum of L.A. These anglerfish are naturally this dark color, says Ludt-allowing them to blend into the inky blackness of the deep, dark sea. Living, glowing bacteria called photobacterium light up the anglerfish’s lure to attract unwitting fish.
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