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The Blobfish

Blobfish

Want to know what ugly looks like? I suggest you take a look at the Blobfish. Wouldn’t you agree? In fact, the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, a campaign designed to protect the aesthetically challenged animals, recently named the Blobfish as their official mascot which technically makes it the ugliest animal in the world. Of course you can’t blame the Blobfish for being so unattractive. It’s all in its genes. The Blobfish is pretty much just a blob of white to pink gelatin-like mass that makes up what looks like its gargantuan nose and sad-looking eyes above a huge frown.

Blob

But enough of its physical description. Either way, the Blobfish is an interesting sea creature that should be studied more. The thing is, it’s endangered. Why would such an ugly fish be endangered? First of all, Blobfish primarily live on the floor of the ocean coast, at depths of 600 to 1,200 meters, near Australia. They literally just stay there. Blobfish have absolutely no muscles so all they just do is float around since their gelatin-like mass gives them a density lower than water at such deep pressures. Surprisingly, Blobfish are still able to eat other sea creatures most of which would be microscopic bacteria or invertebrates such as crabs and sea pens. I know what you’re thinking. How does a fish with little to no muscle catch and eat all those fish? Well, the Blobfish doesn’t really do any catching – it just eats whatever comes close to it during its floating. So for example, if a curious but tasty crab decided to get a closer look at whatever this blob-floating-in-the-bottom-of-the-ocean was, the Blobfish would just open its mouth, maybe move a little bit, and then eat the crab whole.

Blobf

Anyways, why would the Blobfish be endangered? Because of trawling. Trawling is when the fishermen cast their nets deep in the ocean and rake up large groups of fish from the ocean floor. Sadly, because the Blobfish have no muscle and can’t escape anything they usually get caught up in the large nets. The last time that multiple Blobfish have been seen was in 2006. Currently, the total population of the Blobfish is unknown but some experts believe that the population could range from zero to very few. Fishermen realize that and sometimes, if a  Blobfish gets accidentally caught up in the net, they’ll just release it back into the ocean. If Blobfish were actually worth lots of money then the fishermen probably wouldn’t, but instead Blobfish really are not wanted as food at all. Why? Well, they’re inedible.

So far, the only attempted method of saving these Blobfish is a ban on deep-sea trawling but that has not been passed yet. Even though Blobfish may be aesthetically challenged, they still are interesting creatures that could definitely be studied much closer. As of now, we know nothing of its reproduction cycles, its mating routines, and other habits. It’s not what’s on the outside that matters as much as the inside. Blobfish still matter!

BLobfis

 

 

 

Some of the information came from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24040130

http://www.critters360.com/index.php/facts-about-blobfish-7932/

http://www.stunninginterestingfacts.com/2013/01/the-blobfish.html

5 Responses

  1. […] Source: link […]

  2. This is the craziest animal yet! I’m still not sure whether I believe it’s real because it is so utterly ridiculous looking. Blobfish is certainly an appropriate name for this weird creature.

  3. I want a blobfish more than anything in the world right now. They are so cool! Very interesting blog. I love reading about species that I have never even heard of before.

  4. It’s almost depressing how little the blobfish has going for it. I’ve known about the blobfish, but I didn’t realize just how little is known about it other than the fact that it looks like semi-digested gum. This truly deserved a weird animals post.

  5. This is very interesting. Apparently more than 90% of the oceans floor has yet to be explored, and we know less about it than we do about the surface of the moon. for all we know there could be thousands of other creatures like the blobfish just waiting to be discovered in the deeps.

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