Weird, Wonderful Wildlife #1 – The Barreleye Fish

Author’s Note: Welcome to my new series dedicated to some of the most intriguing flora and fauna ever discovered. From wasps that zombify cockroaches to finches that drink blood, Nature’s spectacle unfolds in some truly mind-bending and disturbing ways, and I’ve enjoyed compiling these articles to share with you. I will cover reptiles, amphibians, mammals, insects and plants but since I’m a MASSIVE arachnophobe, you won’t read about spiders here, though I’m sure there are plenty of strange ones in the world (I just don’t want to find them!). Please join me on this fascinating and creepy journey and let me know what you think about Weird Wonderful Wildlife.

The barreleye fish is one I’d love to see in an aquarium but I never will because this enigmatic fish lives from 2000 to 2600 feet below the surface of the ocean, a depth which protects it from fishing nets. Some sea creatures grow to massive sizes the deeper they live in the ocean, but the barreleye only measures six inches long, and eats zooplankton, small crustaceans and prey that it steals from siphonophores (which will be the subject of an upcoming article). A barreleye has long flat fins, which give it an advantage when hunting because they not only help it maneuver precisely in the dark, but they also allow it to hover when in the vicinity of prey. Their most unique feature, however, are their eyes – as the photo indicates, the barreleye looks as though it has two small eyes on its face, but those are actually its nostrils; the green barrel shaped organs in the top of their heads are their eyes. They look constantly upward when navigating, and it was once believed that their eyes were fixed in this position. It wasn’t until Monterey Bay Aquarium researchers were participating in an ROV dive that it was discovered that they actually can move their eyes, although the movement is limited to rotating forward 90 degrees while hunting. The barreleye fish is believed to have stable populations, but it’s difficult for scientists to know exactly how widespread its habitat actually is. In more than 5600 dives, the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s researchers have only seen it 9 times. It is mind boggling to think of all the amazing creatures we’ll never see simply because humans can’t explore the depths of the ocean, isn’t it?

Source: montereybayaquarium.org/animals-a-to-z/barreleye