Blobfish (photo credit, SEA SERPENT)
The Blobfish
This week I’m going to write about something a little different. Variety is the spice of life you know. So I will be informing you on the blobfish. The blobfish is a deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. It inhabits the deep (and I mean DEEP) waters off the coast of mainland Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. They live at depths between 2,000 and 3,900 feet, where the pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level. This kind of pressure would render gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water. This allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it usually just swallows any edible matter that happens to float by. Usually an invertebrate like a crab or sea pen. So, though they might not be the prettiest fish in the sea, the blobfish’s shape is highly functional. Although I wouldn’t recommend one as a pet…
Well, that was a fun topic. To see what the blobfish looks like on land, and a few witticisms, click here to watch my video.
Vet In Training 