Chordata Spotlight: Blobfish

Wow. I never thought I'd want to do a spotlight for a fish. Honestly, there aren't really many fish that interest me. One of the reasons is that I find them difficult to anthropomorphize in my mind as characters. Animals and fiction go hand in hand with me, and that is usually what drives me to pick an animal for these blogs. It has to be something that amuses me in ways that I can see them as characters. I think the blobfish fits such criteria. I must warn you, however, that there is almost no research material for this creature, so this shall be brief.

The blobfish is a deep-sea fish found off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania. They are also in the waters around New Zealand. They are very deep--as low as 3,900 feet underwater. They also swim very close to the floor which makes them difficult to catch with anything other than drag nets. The pressure at those depths are extreme--at most 120 times as great than at sea level. Needless to say, they don't meat any swimmers down there.

The blobfish is about 11 inches long or shorter. Their make-up is a bit odd. They are a gelatinous mass that has a density that is slightly less than water. This allows it to safely float just above the sea floor without having to use much energy. This is good because the blobfish is not a very powerful fish. It feeds mainly on deep water crustaceans that happen to walk in front of it. Pretty much anything that is eaten by a blobfish officially has bad luck because this fish makes very little effort to catch anything.

Now for the fun part. Images of the blobfish in its natural depth are rare; however, you may notice how normal they look. They just look like any ol' fish. The whole reason I wanted to write this spotlight was what happens when people catch this creature. Once taken out of its depth, the blobfish takes on the appearance of a cartoonish human face. It looks a lot like a grumpy and bald old man.

The anthropomorphic visage of the blobfish are not only comical, but they are also intensely ugly--ugly in a good way, mind you. They are actually fun to look at. In 2013, the blobfish was officially voted as the "World's Ugliest Animal." It was later made the mascot for--and I am not joking about this--the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. Yes, it's a real organization that utilizes stand-up comedy to save ugly animals that tend to lose out on the popularity vote. Indeed, the blobfish is feared to be in trouble due to so much deep-ocean trawling; however, nobody is 100% sure of this.

There is no fiction for the blobfish other than an occasional cameo whenever ugly animals come up in a topic. Knowing what I do of them, I see them as perpetually morose and bad-tempered people. No matter what happens, they are going to have a pessimistic viewpoint about it. When caught by fishermen, I can easily look at that face and imagine them saying, "Well, that figures!" It is as dark as it is amusing. I really like them.

Blobfish are living caricatures of grumpy, old men. I dare you to look at one and not find it amusing! They reek of pessimism, and there are not too many other animals that can pull that off with so much flare. For this reason, the blobfish makes it into the animal hall of fame.

Thank you for reading my blog! If you enjoyed it, you can comment below, or you can email me at tkwadeauthor@gmail.com. Oh, hum!