They are native to the Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and Pacific Ocean.Ħ. Their gelatin-like body has a pinkish gray color, and they weigh in at about 20 pounds. But above the ocean surface, this results in a droopy and saggy-looking creature. It doesn’t have bones or muscles, which is ideal for the depths at which it lives. One of the most obvious facts about blobfish is that they are pretty much blobs, as the name suggests. This means they don’t have to hunt and only have to open their mouth to eat. And the blobfish has perfected the art of conserving energy by limiting their movement.Īs the blobfish floats above the ocean floor, they consume crustaceans, sea urchins, mollusks, and crabs as they pass over them. So conserving energy is extremely important for deep sea fish. Because of this, scientists speculate that blobfish have a life expectancy of over 100 years.įood is not always in abundance on the ocean floor. This is due to their slow growth rate and lack of predators. In fact, it is common for deep sea creatures to live for 100 or more years. While their exact life expectancy is not actually known, fish that live in the deep ocean typically have longer lives than those that live in shallower water. So when the blobfish is taken out of these depths, they kinda deflate and collapse, giving them their blobbish appearance. This extreme pressure is what gives the fish its structural support. The pressure this far below the surface of the ocean is around 120 times more than that on land. Blobfish call the deep depths of the ocean, about 2000 to 4000 feet below the surface of the ocean, its home. It isn’t until they are taken out of the water that they look like a sad, blobby mess. When in its natural environment, the blobfish looks like a normal aquatic animal. Out of over 3,000 votes, the blobfish got 795, making it the winner of the contest. The contest asked people to vote for the ugliest animal, which would then become the society’s mascot. In 2013, The Ugly Animal Preservation Society created a contest to help raise awareness about endangered animals. Blobfish Won The “World’s Ugliest Animal” Contest The following 11 facts about blobfish will get you caught up to speed on this unique creature. 11 Facts About Blobfish You Probably Don’t Knowĭon’t worry if you’re not up on the ins and outs of these funny-looking fish. Despite not being well known by most, the blobfish has become a pop culture phenomenon and wiggled its blobby-self into the hearts of many. These unusual-looking fish call the deep sea their home, and belong to the Psychrolutes genus, which consists of 11 recognized species, according to FishBase. The image of the blobfish we have become used to is not the natural state of any animal – but that of a poor, dead creature whose body has been deformed beyond any recognition after being brutally removed from their natural habitat into an environment they are not built to survive in.Īdd to this the now categoric scientific evidence that fish feel pain and it’s plain to see: The world’s ugliest animal is the human race, as long as we keep doing this, and as long as our trawlers keep decimating the oceans.Maybe it’s because they are considered one of the world’s ugliest animals, but most people don’t know many facts about blobfish. The bottom lineĪre blobfish really the world’s ugliest animal? Definitely not. Maybe we really deserve the dubious honor of “the world’s ugliest animal”, as long as this is what we do to the other animals we share our planet with. But it certainly gives a horrifying perspective to the images plastered across memes, jokes, and t-shirts of the pathetic anti-hero, "the world’s ugliest animal". What would we look like if we were dragged thousands of feet deep underwater without anything to protect us and keep us alive? We can only imagine. The real ugliness, then, is not the blobfish, but the barbaric killing of this fish and the countless others struggling next to them on the deck of the trawler. The extreme pressure change involved in this rapid increase in altitude causes the blobfish's body to literally explode. This tranquility is violently disturbed when a trawler fishing vessel catches and hauls the blobfish abruptly to the surface of the water.
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