A rare event unfolded as a Pacific Football Fish, capable of residing in depths of around 900 meters below the ocean's surface, where sunlight scarcely reaches, was discovered washed up on the shore.
In a Facebook post, a representative from California's Crystal Cove State Park wrote:
Their teeth, like pointed shards of glass, are transparent and their large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body. While females can reach lengths of 24 inches males only grow to be about an inch long and their sole purpose is to find a female and help her reproduce.
Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become “sexual parasites,” eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction. Wild!
To see an actual angler fish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why these fish ended up onshore.
Seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the curious diversity of marine life lurking below the water’s surface in California’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and as scientists continue to learn more about these deep sea creatures it’s important to reflect on how much is still to be learned from our wonderful and mysterious ocean!
It's worth noting that only female anglerfish possess the characteristic lures, and among many anglerfish species, there exists a significant sexual dimorphism.
Males are typically diminutive, often a fraction of the size of females, and they attach themselves to the female by biting into her and physically fusing with her body.
Over time, the sole remnant of the male is the gonads hanging from the female, supplying her with sperm for fertilizing her eggs. Females have been observed with several males clinging to them, akin to literal hangers-on.
Before the same 'horrifying' sea creature was spotted, armed with a mouthful of sharp teeth, and it startled a runner when its jaws ensnared his foot on a Welsh beach.
While jogging along the shores of Three Cliffs Bay in Gower, Andy Rees encountered what initially appeared to be a lifeless baby seal washed ashore.
The creature's teeth had punctured the top of his shoes and penetrated his foot, although, fortunately, there was no bloodshed.
