A rarely seen transparent fish has been spotted y a fish biologist and her team in Alaskan waters. Labelled as a ‘blotched snailfish’, the strange creature is quite unique.
Sarah Friedman, who is a fish biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tweeted an image of the fish with caption, "Been hoping to see one of these in person for a long time! Blotched snailfish (Crystallichthys cyclospilus)".
Mashable quoted Friedman saying, "We found four or five so far, in the couple of weeks we've been out”.
Friedman and her team witnessed the rare fish during a routine survey that NOAA conducts in the Aleutian Islands off of Alaska every year.
Friedman asserted that these fish are not common. "They’re found around 100 to 200 meters down. So I would say your general everyday person is never going to encounter one of these fish”, she said.
.
Features of unique blotch snailfish
The fish have a unique transparent, reddish bodies which serve an important role in their everyday functioning. Deep sea creatures like the blotched snailfish use this adaptation to camouflage themselves underwater. The creatures adapt according to the wavelengths of light that pass-through water.
Since red light has the shortest wavelength, it doesn’t reach deep dark waters and illuminates the blotched snailfish.
This is why the deep-sea animals remain invisible to predators.
These snailfish have suction cups at the bottom of their body which help them to stick to rocks and hold tight in strong water currents.
The fish biologist also shared details about some other interesting species she and her witnessed during their expedition. One of these was the angler fish, which have a rod on the forehead. This rod helps the creatures to lure prey out of the dark depths as it contains light-producing bacteria.
