Scientists Capture Footage of Rare Transparent Fish With See-Through Head

Lately, experts obtained recordings of a fish with a huge, transparent head and emerald eyes peering beyond its head underneath the of Monterey Bay off the coast of California.

A barreleye fish also known as the Macropinna microstoma is a strange organism that is seldom sighted. Barreleyes fish are less numerous than other twilight zone fish, like bristlemouths or lanternfish.

Transparent Fish Seen in Monterey Bay

Based on MBARI tweet on December 9, investigators from the Monterey Bay Marine Experiment Station (MBARI) have only sighted the creature nine times, notwithstanding sending their unmanned robotic automobiles (ROV) on over 5,600 dives in the fish's environment.

Furthermore, barreleye fish persist immobile while they seek for unsuspecting food, such as zooplankton and jellyfish, to glide above, this is according to MBARI experts' observational data, issued in 2009 journal Copeia.

The barreleye's eyeballs flashed brilliant emerald in the illumination of the ROV and were plainly visible through the translucent, diffusion armor that covered the fish's forehead.

As said by the MBARI, the fish reside in the oceanic dark night, which is between 650 to 3,300 feet below. Barreleyes inhabit approximately 2,000 to 2,600 feet submerged layer, reaching the depths where the seawater tumbles into full obscurity.

While according to another marine webpage, the Monterey Bay Laboratory will debut a new exposition named Into the Deep: Investigating Our Undiscovered Ocean in springtime of year 2022, which will showcase all kinds of profound species, from huge isopods to marine spiders to blood-bellied comb jellies.

When a barreleye species sees a luminescence jelly or small crab passing past, it zips up to catch it in its mouth while moving its eyes forward to see where all the it's heading.

Almost all of these animals, such as barreleye species, resemble monsters from a work of literature.

Though it remains only a theory, the translucent skull cover of the barreleye fish may safeguard it from the stinging tentacles in the siphonophores' tentacles.

More about the Barreleye Fish in California

As to MBARI, these eyeballs are lightweight and may be positioned upward, over the front of the fish's skull, or straight forward.

Barracuda can identify the silhouettes of their victims above it by aiming their emerald eyeballs straight up, and the green color in their eyes presumably helps block out daylight from the sea floor.

"We had no desire to capture this creature," Knowles added, explaining that the institution is not fully equipped to manage for the poorly defined fish.

In the 2009 MBARI documentary, experts claims that M. microstoma may occasionally take the food from siphonophores, which are jellyfish-like animals that adhere into one huge queues and grab prey in their tendrils.

The ecosystem of the barreleye species stretches from the Bering Sea to Japan and Baja California. Thus, academics did not even know about just the barriers until the 2000s, when MBARI investigators observed a barreleye fish in its native environment, he added.

The squad observed the M.microstoma on their most current dive with bated breath. They followed a microstoma creature until it drifted gone, then resumed their quest for deep water jellyfish.