Friday Creature Feature:
Bristlemouths, Hatchetfish, Stoplight loosejaws, Dragon fish, Lantern fish ( and more)
What do they have in common?
-They all live in the Twilight zone of the ocean ( Mesopelagic zone) beyond the reach of light.
- Most are daily migrants to the epipelagic zone- meaning during the day they remain in the dark and at night they migrate toward the surface water to eat
- They make up the deep scattering layer of the ocean- For a long time sonar from ships misinterpreted the ocean floor being a lot more shallow because the sheer numbers fish and the air in the swim bladders reflecting the sonar.
- Mesopelagic fish make up the largest total biomass of fish in the ocean- they are the most abundant
- Their abundance and their daily vertical migration in the ocean acts as a bio pump removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
The global fishing industry has overfished the ocean's surface now they are increasingly interested in capturing mesopelagic fish on a massive scale. These fish are unpalatable so they'll be made into fishmeal for supplements and as food for aquaculture.
HARD STOP..... so many questions!!
If we negate the effects of this carbon sink and add more carbon producing fish byproducts, doesn't that add exponential rates of carbon into the atmosphere?
Are we going to properly manage and regulate the catch of these fish or are we going to fish these deep sea fish to their full collapse as we have with most other fish? 🤔
We still know very little about any organisms living in the deep sea. We need to see them, love them and protect them.
View this printed collection of mesopelagic fish at the Overture Center for the Arts through April.
