A fish with a translucent head and green orb-like eyes is being filmed by scientists beneath the surface of Monterey Bay.
The barreleye fish is very rare. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has only spotted the species nine times despite sending their remotely operated vehicles on more than 5,600 dives in the fish's habitat.
A team of scientists caught sight of a fish suspended in the water after using a ROV.
In photos, spooky deep-sea creatures.
I spy with my barreleye.
>
The team came across a rare treat during a dive with our education and outreach partner.
>
December 9, 2021.
The Monterey Submarine Canyon is one of the deepest submarine canyons on the Pacific coast and the ROV was cruising at a depth of about 2,132 feet.
The barreleye was small out in the blue distance, but I knew what I was looking at. He said it couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
The ROV pilot kept the underwater robot pointed at the barreleye while the control room was abuzz with excitement. "We all knew that this was likely a once in a lifetime experience, since the creature is very rare," said Knowles.
We've only encountered this fish nine times, yet we've recorded more than 27,600 hours of video.
>
December 9, 2021.
The barreleye's eyes were bright green and could be seen through the clear shield that covered the fish's head.
The eyes can be oriented straight up, towards the top of the fish's head, or straight ahead. The fish has two dark-colored capsules in front of its eyes that hold the organs it uses to smell.
The habitat of the barreleye fish is from the Bering Sea to Japan. The fish live in the ocean twilight zone, which is between 700 to 3,300 feet underwater, and where the water plunges into complete darkness.
Scientists don't know how many of these helmet-heads are in the ocean.
Bruce Robison told Live Science in an email that there was no handle on population size.
He said that barreleye fish are less abundant than other twilight zone fish, such as lanternfish or bristlemouths, and that the team encounters them as often as they do anglerfish, whalefish, and gulpers.
Scientists think that barreleye fish are mostly motionless as they wait for their prey to drift overhead. A set of broad, flat fins on the fish's body allows it to hover.
By pointing their green eyes straight upward, barreleyes can spot silhouettes of their prey from above, and the green color in their eyes helps filter out sunlight from the ocean surface.
When a barreleye fish spots a bioluminescent jelly or tiny crustacean, it zooms upward to grab it in its mouth, so it can see where it's going.
Scientists theorize that M. microstoma may sometimes steal food from sphinx-like organisms that cling together in long lines and capture prey in their tentacles.
The barreleye fish's transparent head shield might protect it against the stinging cells in the siphonophores' tentacles, but again, this is speculation.
Most aspects of their natural history are unknown and much of what we know about them is based on speculation.
The team from Monterey Aquarium spotted this fish while they were on the R/V Rachel Carson with the ROV Ventana. The team stopped to admire Macropinna.
>
December 9, 2021.
Fishers caught these early M. microstomas in nets that destroyed their transparent head shields. He said that scientists didn't know about the shields until the 2000s, when they saw a fish in its natural habitat. There's still a lot to learn about the fish.
After watching the M. microstoma specimen swim away, the team continued their search for other organisms in the deep sea.
The aquarium isn't adequately set up to care for poorly understood fish, so we didn't want to collect this animal.
The deep sea creatures will be on display at the aquarium.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium will open a new exhibition called " Into the Deep: Exploring Our Undiscovered Ocean" in the spring of 2022.
Many of the creatures look like they were plucked from a sci-fi novel.
There are related content.
The wonders of the deep sea can be seen in photos.
The sea monsters are weird.
There is a deep-sea metropolis of octopuses.
The article was published by Live Science. The original article can be found here.
