The bright orange, female whalefish (of the order Cetomimiformes) was spotted half-swimming, half-gliding through the glare of submarine's lights around 6,600 feet (2,013 meters) deep offshore of Monterey Bay, California.
The whalefish sighting was one of only 18 made by marine biologists from The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute during 34 years of deep-sea exploration.
"Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute tweeted. "With each deep-sea dive, we uncover more mysteries and solve others."
So little is known about the lives of whalefish that for more than a century after their discovery (they were first recorded in 1895 by two Smithsonian Institution scientists), the three vastly different forms the animals may take across their life cycles were mistaken for entirely different zoological families.
First, there are the tapetails: scaleless larval forms with long, streamer-like tails and mouths that seem to have a comical overbite; they live and feed near the ocean’s surface.
"Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute tweeted. "With each deep-sea dive, we uncover more mysteries and solve others."
So little is known about the lives of whalefish that for more than a century after their discovery (they were first recorded in 1895 by two Smithsonian Institution scientists), the three vastly different forms the animals may take across their life cycles were mistaken for entirely different zoological families.
First, there are the tapetails: scaleless larval forms with long, streamer-like tails and mouths that seem to have a comical overbite; they live and feed near the ocean’s surface.
When the time comes for these fish to assume their adult forms, two vastly different body shapes await them. READ MORE
