Researchers Spot Rare Fish With Translucent Head
Timothy Roberts
We sometimes talk about people we know or perhaps people we know of as being transparent. Of course, we mean that it is easy to read those people but we don't actually mean we can see through them.
When we are talking about the Barreleye Fish, however, we are talking about quite the opposite. The majority of the fish is quite normal, but the head of the fish is transparent. You can literally see right through it!
Photo: Unfortunately, it is rare to see this fish because it lives in the "twilight zone" of the ocean. That zone, which is between 2000 and 2600 feet deep, in the ocean rarely sees any sunlight.
When researchers from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) were diving for jellies to put in their California aquarium, they happened upon a Barreleye Fish and they stopped to shoot some pictures.
Photo: The fish was spotted by Tommy Knowles and his team as they were on the vessel, Rachel Carlson. They couldn't help but take a look, and we all get to benefit from the footage.
Since the fish head is transparent, you can see everything that is taking place inside of it. This sometimes leads to some confusion, because the olfactory organs inside of the head are often mistaken for eyes.
Photo: If you look closely at the footage below, you will see some green orbs above the area where you might consider the eyes being. Those are actually the eyes, and they typically look upward so the fish can see its prey and move up toward it.
Interestingly, those eyes also have the ability to swing around to the bottom of the head so it can see in any direction. It tends to look upward, however, because it prefers to eat crustaceans trapped in the tentacles of sea creatures.
Don't be alarmed by the size of the fish, because the pictures can be deceiving. In reality, it is only about 7 or 8 inches long and most of them are shorter.
You can find these interesting fish in many different parts of the sea, but you have to be in the twilight zone if you want to see them.
