Rare Black Sea Devil

The anglerfish survived capture and is now being studied in a specially equipped laboratory.

With its gaping mouth, needle-sharp teeth, and slightly startled expression, the black sea devil anglerfish seems tailor-made for the spotlight.

On November 17 when researchers got footage of this rare anglerfish was the first time this species has been filmed alive and in its natural hábitat off of central California.

The scientists were then able to bring  up of the surface alive the black sea devil from 1,9oo feet ( 580 meters under the sea) using a remotely operate vehicle (ROV) and have been monitoring the fish ever since.

Bruce Robison, a Deep sea ecologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, has brought up sea devils from the deep before, but never with an ROV. “It came up in absolutely perfect condition,” he says.

Having a living animal to study is telling scientists so much more than they could ever have gotten from the dead, preserved specimens floating around various research facilities, Robison explains:

“One of the first things that we got back from ichthyologists was astonishment at how [the fish] uses its dorsal fin to swim,” he says. “Nobody had ever seen that.”

The anglerfish also appeared to be breathing more than expected, given its build, Robison added.