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Deep Sea Anglerfish

 Female humpback anglerfish carry their own glowing lure — a luminescent “fishing rod” that dangles in front of its mouth to attract prey in the pitch-black deep ocean.

 

The humpback anglerfish, also called the blackdevil, lives in the cold, dark waters of the ocean primarily at depths between 500 and 1,500 meters (1,640 to 4,921 feet) down. Males grow to be much smaller than females – reaching just 2.9 centimeters (1.1 inches) compared to the female’s 18 centimeters (7.1 inches). In this lightless environment, survival requires extraordinary adaptations. This species has a rounded black body and a head filled with long teeth that, for females, can be up to 25% of its body length. Its expandable stomach can enlarge to be bigger than its entire body, allowing it to consume prey larger than itself.

Its most famous feature is the bioluminescent lure that females have, which sits at the tip of a modified dorsal spine. Female anglerfish will sit and wait, with their glow acting like bait to draw in curious fish, eels, and other prey, and then snap up their unsuspecting prey! For tiny males, the priority is finding a mate – they will seek out a female and temporarily attach itself to her to reproduce – unlike some other species of anglerfish where this attachment is permanent!

 

 

These fish can be captured incidentally in deep-sea trawls, however, this is not thought to pose a significant threat to the species overall.16 Despite their rarity, the humpback anglerfish is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List face any major threats.

 

 

As with other deep-sea species, disturbances such as deep-sea mining could disrupt the humpback angler’s fragile environment in the future. This highly disruptive industrial activity comes with risks that are still poorly understood. Any attempt to accelerate deep-sea mining without proper safeguards will only speed up the destruction of our oceans. Oceana supports complete bans on deep-sea mining in small and biodiverse habits where damage is essentially unmitigable, as well as a moratorium on mining in other areas until comprehensive regulations based on the best available science are in place. Learn more about why it is so important to protect the deep sea here. 

 

 

Cowles DL and Childress JJ (1994) Aerobic metabolism of the angerfish Melanocetus johnsoni, a deep-pelagic marine sit-and-wait predator. Deep-Sea Research I 42(9): 1631-1638.  

Fishbase 

Isakov N (2022) Histocompatibility and Reproduction: Lessons from the Anglerfish. Life 12(1): 113. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12010113 

IUCN Red List 

 

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