February 1, 2010

An ugly truth: The future is dim for the world's homeliest fish

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Can't the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) get some love? This ugly, gelatinous, inedible fish now risks extinction thanks to humans trawling marine murky depths for lobsters and crabs.

Blobfish live at depths of 800 meters off the southeastern coast of Australia. The species has a very limited habitat, and can't survive elsewhere.

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"The Australian and New Zealand deep-trawling fishing fleets are some of the most active in the world, so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be," Callum Roberts of the University of York in England told the Daily Telegraph. "We've been overfishing areas up to about 200 m[eters] deep, and now we have moved off those continental shelves and into the deep sea in areas a couple of thousand meters deep."

Blobfish grow to about 30 centimeters in length. They feed on drifting organic matter as they themselves drift above the ocean floor.

Image: ViaWikipedia

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