Rare ‘Alien’ fish netted off Irish Coast

The Irish Examiner ^ | 06/23/03 | Staff

[Notforprophet]

A STRANGE-LOOKING marine species which provided the inspiration for blockbuster Alien films has been netted off the Irish coast.

Global warming may have attracted the rare South American species, the Black Widow, into deep water fisheries off the south west.

The bulbous black fish traps males for mating and they stay attached for the rest of their lives.

The dead Black Widow was netted by trawler skipper Sean Conneely 200 miles off the coast.

Normally, the fish can keep males alive on its body for 30 to 40 years by feeding them blood.

The fish, hunted by deep sea anglers in warm waters, has been sent to a natural history museum. Dingle Oceanworld director Kevin Flannery said the fish can live for up to 120 years.

Examining the fish, he said a number of rare specimens have been discovered off the Irish coast in recent years due to increasing sea temperatures. “These angler fish were used as inspiration for the Alien films because they are so weird-looking.

“The fish is extremely big and black and lives in depths of up to three miles It’s pitch dark, so the female leaves out her scent which attracts the males. When the male injects for fertilisation and is attached to the fish, she clamps him and he can’t withdraw. The male it kept there for life and degenerates down to about one-hundredth of the size of the female.”

Mr Flannery said females hang on to the males, because they so seldom meet them in the deep. Some females have more than one male attached.

[Notforprophet]

"It’s pitch dark, so the female leaves out her scent which attracts the males. When the male injects for fertilisation and is attached to the fish, she clamps him and he can’t withdraw. The male it kept there for life and degenerates down to about one-hundredth of the size of the female.”

Sounds like a certain First Lady turned Senator to me. Eew.

NFP

[Notforprophet]

Ping

[Plutarch]

Global warming may have attracted the rare South American species...

Unlikely, unless the fish responds to computer models, the only place global warming exists.

[bedolido]

Great find... another reason to stay out of the water. This is scarey stuff...lol. I knew a woman like that about 32 years ago... I'm still attached to her. I've tried for years to get free... (don't get attached much anymore... lost my fertilization years ago too).

[lawdude]

The icthyological version of the Hillary parasite!

[Blood of Tyrants]

Because angler fish are so sparsely populated throughout the vast millions of cubic miles of ocean, chance mating encounters between males and females would be unlikely. In fact, when deep-sea anglers were first brought up in trawls they puzzled scientists because they were all females. Then someone noticed small "growths" on the female that turned out to be males. When a tiny male meets a female he bits into her flesh and literally fuses with her body. Like the linking together of web sites on the Internet, the two blood supplies also fuse together so that the male obtains nutrients and oxygen from the female. Without any need for most of his organ systems, such as eyes and digestive organs, the male's body degenerates into essentially a pair of sperm-producing testicles. Thus the female essentially becomes a hermaphrodite with up to six or more of these tiny male parasites attached to various parts of her body. Although functionally bisexual, the eggs and sperm come from genetically distinct parents, thus providing vital genetic variability through meiosis and genetic recombination. As a functional hermaphrodite she can have sex any time or place, without worrying about meeting a male in the dark abyss of the ocean. Clinging to her body like minute, blood-sucking parasites, the males have little interaction with the female, except to fertilize her eggs with sperm. This fascinating story (and many others) are nicely explained in a pictorial book entitled The Mating Game by Robert Burton (Crown Publishers, New York, 1976).

Sounds like a few troglodites I have known. And clintoon.

[rwfok]

Sounds like a certain First Lady turned Senator...



I can see the resemblance.

[harpseal]

Sounds like a certain First Lady turned Senator to me. Eew.

Please the fish is much better looking.

[Registered]

I want one of these babies in my fish tank!

[Blood of Tyrants]

An interesting question is why doesn't the female's body reject the tissue of the male as it would a foreign object.

[bedolido]

An interesting question is why doesn't the female's body reject the tissue of the male as it would a foreign object.

The female body accepts the sperm and doesn't try to kill it... that is, unless the eggs is not fertalized... then it's every sperm for itself.

[JennysCool]

trawler skipper Sean Conneely

Shocking. Positively shocking!

[Kenton]

The bulbous black fish traps males for mating and they stay attached for the rest of their lives.

My wife did the same thing.

[lilylangtree]

"STRANGE-LOOKING marine species"

Actually, it's the RAT party taking off their human disguises.

[Dacus943]

"the male's body degenerates into essentially a pair of sperm-producing testicles"

Yea...!!! I can still remember the 70's, 80's, and early 1990's.

[wimpycat]

I've seen that fish on that "Blue Planet" series. It's a scary looking fish.

[tbpiper]

traps males for mating and they stay attached for the rest of their lives.

Expect freeper feeding frenzy or sucha a rich line.

[tbpiper]

traps males for mating and they stay attached for the rest of their lives.

Expect freeper feeding frenzy or sucha a rich line.

[Notforprophet]

I was hoping exactly that.

NFP

[FastCoyote]

"Without any need for most of his organ systems, such as eyes and digestive organs, the male's body degenerates into essentially a pair of sperm-producing testicles."

That's where I'm headed myself.