SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The Pacific Football Fish, it might not look pretty to you, but to Ben Frable, the Collections Manager for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, it's a perfect specimen.
"You can think of just kind of a floating head," said Frable. "They're really dark and have a special modification to have a little glowing lure on the front of their head."
The football fish is a species of angler fish, deep sea swimmers that use the glowing light in the pitch blackness to attract prey. They live as deep as 3,000 feet in the Pacific ocean and are hardly ever seen by humans.
In December, Frable brought the fish which, had washed up on Swami’s Beach, back to the institute and it will soon be on display in the Birch Aquarium for everyone to see.
And it has a perfect home next to the Pugnose Pony Fish and The Giant Antarctic Scale Worm in their oddities exhibit.
"These animals have really unique adaptations to us adaptations that, to us, are quite horrific," said Frable. "These things have evolved to live on this planet, and just giving people the opportunity to see it in person in front of them, I think it is really valuable towards helping further that knowledge."
The collection of oddities, a whole world of sea creatures from the depths below hoping to spark the imagination of the next generation of ocean explorers.
You can see the football fish starting Friday, March 25 through April 24 only at the Birch Aquarium.
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