![]() ![]() The species has only been seen a few times in California - including Orange County, where it washed up near Crystal Cove State Park in Newport Beach in May. The fish use a fleshy, bioluminescent lure from their heads to attract prey. It is usually found 2,000 to 3,000 feet beneath the sea, where sunlight doesn't penetrate, according to the California Academy of Sciences. "At first I thought it was a - like a jellyfish or something, and then I went and looked at it a little more carefully, and some other people were gathered around it too, and then I saw that it was this very unusual fish.It's the stuff of nightmares - mouth almost looked bloody! I'd say it was nearly a foot long," Beiler told local media, according to Storyful. 13 when it washed up at Torrey Pines State Beach. It's called the Pacific footballfish, and it's one of the larger anglerfish species. A rare, monstrous-looking fish recently washed ashore in San Diego. ![]() Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become sexual parasites, eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction. (KABC) - This is really the stuff of nightmares. While females can reach lengths of 24 inches males only grow to be about an inch long and their sole purpose is to find a female and help her reproduce. “I think it’s a beautiful fish,” he said."It's the stuff of nightmares!" A rare, monstrous-looking fish normally found thousands of feet deep in the ocean washed ashore at Torrey Pines State Beach in San Diego. As pictured in Finding Nemo, the football fish has a glowing esca that hangs over its head and lures prey near. Photo: flickr/NOAA Ocean Exploration & Research. Jay Beiler, who recently chanced upon one on Black’s Beach, told news outlets, “It’s the stuff of nightmares.” The foot-long fish ended up being a Pacific footballfish (Himantolophus sagamius), a rare deep-sea species that typically lives 2,000+ feet below the surface. Some find the fish’s appearance off-putting. They also have sharp teeth that angle inward in their mouth - ensuring that what goes in doesn’t come out. “They’re pretty much these spheres …covered in little spines,” which help ward off attacks from would-be predators. “They’re so much stockier” than other anglerfish, which come in many shapes and sizes, Frable said. ![]() (Anglerfish exhibit what’s known as extreme sexual dimorphism: The males are much smaller than their female counterparts.) It’s also one of the biggest species of anglerfish, with large females measuring about 12 to 15 inches. □ /0uykGvpy9a- Scripps Institution of Oceanography December 15, 2021 Scientists don’t know exactly what it eats, how it reproduces - or what might be driving the cluster of sightings.Įxperts don’t have any evidence to theorize why several deep-sea fish have washed ashore recently, but are interested in learning more about the specimens that have been collected, as well as any new ones that might wash up. With less than three dozen dead specimens available to study, very little is known about the fish that lives in depths of roughly 1,000 to 3,000 feet. The males, on the other hand, measure less than 2 inches long and lack many of the same physical features as the female. They also have a covering of round, bony plates on their body. They have discussed the curious occurrence, “but it’s hard to jump to any conclusions about why this is happening,” he said. Football Fish Appearance The females measure up to 2 feet long and possess the large glowing angler rod that emerges from the head. The museum has four of the species in its collection, including one found by a beachgoer in Newport Beach in May.Įvery time one washes ashore, Ludt said, he’s inundated with calls from friends and colleagues. “It is very strange, and it’s the talk of the town among us California ichthyologists,” or zoologists who study fish, said Bill Ludt, assistant curator of ichthyology at the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum. One was photographed last month near Black’s Beach in La Jolla but disappeared - potentially carried back to sea - before scientists were notified. But in only the last year, three of the creatures have washed up on California beaches, doubling the number of sightings on record in the state. Only 31 collected specimens are known to exist in the world, and the fish has never been observed in the wild, Frable said. ![]()
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