The oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, but 95 percent of that area remains unexplored, and for what is thought to be the first time one of the denizens of those depths has been caught on film. Source: NOAA

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has released what it claims is the first video footage of a female Black Seadevil, a species of deep sea anglerfish that is as fascinating as it is terrifying. Anglerfish such as the Black Seadevil are well known for the bioluminescent appendage on their head that they use as a sort of light up fishing pole to lure prey into a gaping, fang filled mouth. The fish’s stomach is also highly distensible, allowing it to eat creatures many times larger than its own 7 inch body. Source: Bioline

The footage was captured by the Institute through the use of a remotely operated vehicle named Doc Ricketts. “we ‘fly’ the robot through the water at a series of different depths, (10 minutes at each depth), and count all the different types of animals we see,” explained Institute spokeswoman Kim Fulton-Bennett. These “midwater transects” as they are called have been going on for over twenty years, and as this find demonstrates, there is still an entire world under the sea waiting to be explored. Source: CNN

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