Mystery Fish

[DrPaulLee]

I'm intrigued by the news item on the main page, of the mystery fish washed ashore on the Camen Islands. Has it been identified yet?

 

[Peripart]

It's certainly an ugly bugger! Mind you, it probably thinks we look a bit odd, too.
Actually, I was expecting something else entirely, thanks to me reading the heading as "Mystery Ship" rather than fish. Clearly, I've been watching too many episodes of Lost for my own good.

 

[DrPaulLee]

Actually, when I wrote the thing, I put "mystery ship" down too - obviously the Titanic/Caifornian thing is getting to me!

 

[Peripart]

You shouldn't do that, you know, because now I'm intrigued, and have to ask "What Titanic/Californian thing?"

 

[DrPaulLee]

Have a look here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~dnitzer/Titanic.html

Theres some stuff on my homepage too.

 

[Bullseye]

Looks similar to a Grenadier fish,going by the size of the eyes its's certainly a deep ses species.

 

[DrPaulLee]

don't deep-sea fish explode at the surface due to the reduction in pressure? Can't recall where I read this...

 

[ruffready]

well this fish has the same tail
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorati ... ussel.html

more http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/gallery/l ... .html#fish


http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/gallery/l ... .html#fish

 

[oll_lewis]

don't deep-sea fish explode at the surface due to the reduction in pressure? Can't recall where I read this...

I can remember a wildlife docmentary in the early 90s that stated as much as the reason why samples were brought up in presureised containers.

However explode is probably to strong a word, some species may rupure from the lack of pressire around them but some species are perfectly capeable of living happilly at different pressures and depths, some species may even migrate from near the surface to into the abyssal zone during the course of each day.

 

[Xanatico]

I imagine just like divers they might be able to relieve the pressure. So if you just bring up the fish slowly enough, it should be okay. Though I don't know if the pressure could be relieved in a dead fish.

 

[feen5]

Fish don't explode from being brought up but there swim bladders will inflate depending on the difference in pressure and the speed at which they are brought to the surface. This happens with all types of fish and some fish are even said to grunt or bark like dogs as they expel the excess air. Conger eels and red gurnard are examples of this.