Hat tip to one of my favorite blogs, Ugly Overload. Remember, when you eat monkfish this is the beautiful beastie your unleashing your taste buds upon!
From the Youtube page for the video uploader, OceanContent:
“Sitting on the keel of the HMS Ark Royal, this Monkfish let us take some close up shots about 80 miles off of Gibraltar. As the ROV draws near, notice the filament like lure, or esca, between the fish’s eyes. Laying quietly, the monkfish moves the esca to attract other fish which it then swallows whole! Bottom trawling, combined with slow reproduction and high demand for its delicate flesh has caused serious decline of this interesting species. “
I never even knew that monkfish were edible until I saw this on your respective blogs. How is it that the most unsightly creatures often end up being the most palatable? Just look at bivalves, crustaceans, and the ling cod. While I find these creatures fascinating to behold, it cannot be argued that they’re beautiful (exceptions are the shells of certain bivalves, but if you go underneath to the ooey gooey visceral mass, they’re perhaps the ugliest of them all).
Absolutely magnificent!
Tessa, this has beauty all over it! Especially when you learn a few things its biology and life cycle! See https://www.deepseanews.com/2008/10/the-27-best-deep-sea-species-19-black-devil-anglerfish/
The biology of anglerfish is fascinating indeed, and this group of fish actually holds a special place in my heart. When I learned about anglers in an ocean documentary as a kid, it inspired me to devour any information I could on deep-sea life. For a while, I wanted to be a deep-sea biologist when I grew up – a career path that continues to intrigue me. In particular, I would love to research bathypelagic teleosts or abyssopelagic arthropods.