Hi, I hope everyone has been enjoying my blogs so far, and that everyone is doing well with their own passion blogs!  Now let’s get right to it.  Up this week for my own passion blog is Deep sea creatures.  This topic was bound to happen eventually, because we know less about underwater life than we do the surface of the moon!

The first creature to talk about this week is the Giant Isopod, or Bathynomus giganteus:

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This is just like those cute little pill bugs you find everywhere that roll up into little balls and crawl around.  There are two major differences, however.  First, this isopod lives underwater, and second, this is not a centimeter in length.  In fact, this creepy organism grows to be 16 inches long! How gross would it feel to have that crawling all over you?  Food is very scarce down at the bottom of the ocean, and so they eat whatever they come across, like dead carcasses and slow moving organisms.  In fact, the Giant Isopod can go months without eating.  Speaking of food, there are people in Taiwan that actually boil these up and serve them with rice!

Moving along, the next creature is Regalecus glesne, or the Oarfish:

This thing is massively creepy.  Also known as the ribbon fish because of its long and thin appearance, these are not as rare as you would expect.  They are deep sea fish, but are commonly caught on accident by fishermen.  Often they wash up on shore or float when sick or dying, and it is believed that these oarfish are responsible for many claims of sea serpent sightings.  Not surprising, since Regalecus glesne can grow to be 50 feet long and 600 pounds!  They have silver bodies with red fins, and for as large as they are, they only eat very small organisms like plankton or small squid.  I definitely would not ever want to touch one of these!

Third is the Coelacanth, or Latimeria chalumnae:

This is thought to be the oldest living species of fish on the Earth!  It has barely changed any of its appearance for millions of years!  These are very large fish, growing normally to around 6.5 feet! Coelacanths eat almost anything they can fit into their mouths, which would be a ton anyway even if they couldn’t unhinge their jaws to get bigger bites!  In addition, these fish have a usual lifespan of around 60 years, which is extremely long for an animal!  They are currently on the endangered list, as there are only around 500 specimens expected to be in the wild.

Last for this week is Harriotta raleighana, or the Long-Nosed Chimaera:

How messed up is this thing?!  Very little is known about this creature, even though many marine biologists have tried to study it.  These scary fish can grow up to five feet long, and the nose is an obvious feature.  Packed with sensory nerves, the Chimaera senses prey using its highly adapted nose, since it cannot see anything at the bottom of the sea. In South Africa, it has been given the name of “ghost shark”, although they aren’t closely related to sharks.  Finally, as if you would want to get close to it at all, the Long-nosed Chimaera has a very poisonous spine on its dorsal fin that would easily kill a person.  Sleep well tonight!

Well I think that I should wrap this up for now.  Please comment and tell me your opinions on this or any one of my blogs! Theme suggestions of something you really want to see would be very helpful! Which one of these creatures would you want to see in person? Probably none, right?

Have a good week!

Sam