(Gray News) – Researchers say they have captured the first images of an adult black seadevil anglerfish in broad daylight.
Biologists from NGO Condrik Tenerife were on a shark research expedition when they spotted the deep-sea fish alive near the ocean’s surface.
The fish was seen off the coast of the Spanish island of Tenerife.
It’s an unusual find because the anglerfish lives between 330 to 15,000 below the ocean’s surface, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
According to Oceanographic, all previous sightings of a living black seadevil anglerfish had only been captured with submarine images in the dark depths of the ocean. In rare cases, the fish has washed up onto beaches after it died.
One of the marine biologists on the expedition, Laia Valor, told Oceanographic that the team spent a few hours watching the fish swimming near the surface until it died.
“It was in poor condition and only survived for a few hours,” she told the outlet.
The team said they don’t know why the anglerfish would have come up to the ocean’s surface, but its body was brought to the Museum of Nature and Archaeology in Santa Cruz de Tenerife where it will be studied further.
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