The Mysterious Pacific Footballfish

Oceanography (Audio)

The Pacific footballfish is a large but rarely encountered deep-sea anglerfish known from only 31 specimens recovered worldwide. Strangely, over the course of last year (2021), three footballfish were found washed up on beaches in San Diego and Orange Counties. Scripps scientists aren't quite sure why these rare creatures are suddenly showing up on our beaches, but were lucky enough to collect, preserve and archive one of these unusual animals in Scripps world class oceanographic collections. This specimen, a true oddity, is now on display for a very limited time at Birch Aquarium. To see the footballfish and learn more about it, join us and Scripps Collections Manager, Ben Frable, for a deep dive into the fascinating story of this mysterious fish, where and how it lives, the biology of anglerfishes, and how Scripps scientists are preserving this animal for future research. Series: "Jeffrey B. Graham Perspectives on Ocean Science Lecture Series" [Science] [Show ID: 37914]