The Bizarre Truth About Blobfish

Blobfish Habitat

The blobfish lives in some of the deepest ocean waters on Earth. Its natural habitat is around Australia and New Zealand at depths between 600-1200 meters (about 2,000-4,000 feet) in the continental slope or the abyssal zone. This area of the ocean has extremely high pressure, very low light levels, and near-freezing temperatures averaging 2-4 degrees Celsius.

Blobfish Size

Due to the high-pressure environment they live in, the blobfish remains a blob-like mass with densities slightly greater than water. Their gelatinous texture allows them to match the water pressure at such depths. On average, an adult blobfish measures 20-39 cm (8-15 in) in length and weighs around 1 kg (2.2 lbs). However, due to their fragile state when brought to the surface, blobfish can inflate to several times their size by absorbing gases.

Blobfish LifeSpan

Blobfish have an average lifespan of 20-30 years in the wild. However, their lifespan shortens dramatically if brought to the surface due to the change in pressure that damages their internal organs and tissues. Their bodies simply aren’t equipped to withstand such rapid pressure changes. When accidentally caught by deep sea trawlers and hauled ashore, most blobfish don’t survive more than a few minutes or hours without their natural high-pressure environment.

Blobfish in Water vs Out

In their natural habitat, the blobfish looks somewhat like a deflated rubber toy or grey-colored jelly. However, when taken out of the high-pressure depths and exposed to surface pressure, significant changes happen as gases in their tissues expand and contract. Their appearance transforms into an amorphous pink blob with loose, gelatinous skin. Their faces seem to sag and appear almost melancholy, giving rise to their unofficial title of the “Saddest Fish.” So, in summary, blobfish are pinkish-grey underwater but turn pink and blobby at surface pressure levels.

Baby Blobfish

There isn’t much research available on baby blobfish in the wild. Most fish lay thousands of eggs at once, and the larvae drift along with the ocean currents. Scientists hypothesize that baby blobfish may resemble miniature versions of adults with developing gelatinous structures for neutral buoyancy at depth. The high-pressure environment, even at their early life stages, plays an important role in protecting against gas bubble formation as they mature. More studies are needed to learn about their growth and development process from eggs to adolescents.

Dead Blobfish

When the blobfish dies, its fluid-filled tissues are no longer regulated by its muscular body, and the gas levels inside fluctuate freely with surrounding pressure changes. If a dead blobfish is brought up from deep waters, its shape becomes even more grotesque as gases expand inside its body cavity. Its lips curl back, almost smiling, and its form resembles a deflated soccer ball or bowl of jello. Photographs of specimens in this state helped earn the blobfish the title of “World’s Ugliest Animal” in a 2012 poll conducted by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. However, it’s important to note that this extreme appearance is unnatural as it would never encounter such low pressures when alive in its deep ocean habitat.

Purpose of a Blobfish

So what is the ecological purpose of such an odd-looking creature? The blobfish plays an important role as a mid-level scavenger, feeding on dead organic matter like fish and squid carcasses that slowly drift down from shallower zones. Their loose structure at depth allows them to effortlessly drift at neutral densities in the water and scan the deep sea floor for food. Their gills also help filter particles for nutrition. So, in summary, blobfish help remove and recycle nutrients in one of the most extreme habitats on our planet, the deep sea abyss.

FAQs

Can blobfish be eaten?

While blobfish contain meat, their gelatinous texture and low commercial value make them generally uneatable for humans. Their flabby muscles provide very few calories or nutrients compared to other seafood like fish or shellfish commonly consumed. Some possible reasons blobfish are not used as food include:

• Texture: Their loose skin and fluids would make for an unappetizing bite that more resembles jelly than firm meat. Cooking may not significantly improve the texture.

• Bones: Despite their soft exterior, blobfish still contain a mostly intact skeleton that would be difficult to fully remove from the muscle tissue during preparation. Stray bones could pose a risk if accidentally swallowed.

• Flavor: The flavor of blobfish meat has not been widely documented since they are rarely harvested. However, their scavenging diet and high water content suggest the flesh may have a mild or watered-down taste lacking desirable fish flavors.

• Distribution: Due to living deep underwater, blobfish are generally inaccessible to coastal communities where most seafood is caught and consumed. The effort to catch and transport them alive from depths of 1000+ feet does not currently offer incentives for commercial or subsistence fishing.

While survival times out of water could possibly be extended through butchering, gutting, and immediate cooking or freezing of blobfish after retrieval from deep trawls, their low commercial appeal compared to other deep-sea species limits human consumption. More studies would help evaluate blobfish meat composition and potential for future utilization if sustainably caught.

Why do blobfish turn pink?

When blobfish are brought rapidly from their high-pressure depths to surface atmospheric pressure levels, the drastic change in pressure causes a phenomenon called embolism. Embolism happens when gases dissolved in their tissues come out of solution inside the body, forming bubbles in fluids and blocking blood vessels.

This occurs because gases like nitrogen that are harmless at deep pressures become problematic as pressure decreases during retrieval. The forming gas bubbles essentially cause the tissues to foam up or froth, making the normally grayish blobfish appear pinkish and jelly-like. It’s the expansion of intravascular and extracellular gases during decompression that changes their outward appearance and causes physical damage.

The visible effect of “pinkifying” is basically the result of gases destabilizing in their organs and soft body parts due to off-gassing when surfacing. To avoid this, scientists recommend bringing alive specimens up very slowly to allow their body chemistry to adjust more gradually to changing pressures through a process called hyperbaric recompression.

Why do blobfish look like humans?

While their facial structure does resemble a slack-jawed, frowny human when severely damaged by pressure changes near the surface, blobfish do not actually look like humans underwater in their natural deep-sea habitat.

When forcibly retrieved from extreme depths, the rapid off-gassing of internal gases causes their features to appear shockingly deformed from their normal appearance. Facial features sag and skin folds, making eyes seem sunken and lips downturned in what resembles a distressed melty human countenance.

However, video footage from remotely operated submersibles shows living blobfish at depth exhibit subtle fleshy protrusions where our facial features would be but lack distinct eyes, nose, or mouth. They appear fleshy and structureless, resembling an amorphous sea creature. The extreme texture alteration from their high-pressure physiology dysfunction is what produces the unnerving human likeness – not their natural visible characteristics. Proper handling avoids this effect.

How much is a blobfish worth in real life?

While individual blobfish have never been commercially assessed for their monetary value, their ecological worth is significant. As scavengers in one of Earth’s largest and least explored ecosystems, blobfish help regulate populations of carrion-eating invertebrates and recycle nutrients through the food web from the ocean floor to higher trophic levels.

If cleaned and processed and a market demand existed, their meat could potentially offer some economic benefit locally. However, legal and logistical challenges harvesting them sustainably from over 600 meters depth currently limits their practical value. Some have speculated deep sea scavenging species like blobfish may have future bioprospecting potential if chemicals in their tissues prove medically or commercially useful once more is known.

For now, blobfish value lies more in promoting ocean conservation awareness than in monetary worth. As an endemic but rare species, every individual improves scientific understanding of resilient yet fragile abyssal communities. Non-extractive research also enhances environmental education for future generations.

What are 5 interesting facts about blobfish?

1. Blobfish have an average lifespan of 20-30 years, living exclusively in open ocean waters off southeastern Australia between depths of 600-1200 meters.

2. Their shape and consistency allow neutral buoyancy in the high-pressure zone they inhabit, with densities only slightly higher than water. This allows efficient drifting along the seafloor in search of food.

3. Blobfish reproduction involves external fertilization of many small eggs that drift as larvae in deep currents before settling as juveniles. However, little is known about their early life history in the wild.

4. Despite looking like a “pile of pink goo,” blobfish employ structural proteins in their gelatinous tissue that provide form and flexibility to withstand crushing pressures equivalent to 50 atmospheres (750 psi) where they live.

5. Invasive deep trawling by wild fisheries has increased blobfish encounters and mortalities indirectly as bycatch in recent decades, heightening their “vulnerable” conservation status and raising awareness of anthropogenic threats to rare deep ocean species.