‘Icarus of the deep’: how a dying anglerfish grew to become a social media sensation

A seize of a handout video taken on January 26, 2025 by Condrik Analysis and Protect NGO reveals a humpback anglerfish close to the coast of Tenerife, within the Canary Islands. The video of a humpback anglerfish is a really uncommon sighting, as this sort of fish lives between 200 and 2000 metres deep in tropical and subtropical seas. The explanation for its presence within the floor is unsure, in line with the NGO. Some hypotheses might be that it was sick, that it was following an updraft or that it was fleeing from a predator.
| Picture Credit score: AFP

In February, researchers from conservation organisation Condrik Tenerife have been about two kilometres off the coast of Tenerife Island, searching for sharks, after they caught sight of one thing a lot stranger.

Photographer David Jara Boguñá filmed a humpback anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii, a species of black seadevil) swimming close to the floor in sunlit waters. These fish have by no means earlier than been seen alive in daylight, as they usually dwell within the “twilight zone” at depths from 200m to 600m.

The video has provoked an enormously empathetic response on social media, with some seeing the fish as a feminist icon or an Icarus-like determine who swam too near the Solar. The response reveals our views of the deep sea – lengthy ignored or seen as a realm of monsters – might ultimately be altering.

The unusual lives of anglerfish

Anglerfish are a lot smaller than you in all probability assume they’re. The specimen Boguñá filmed was a feminine, which usually develop as much as 15cm lengthy.

The creatures are named for his or her bioluminescent lure (or esca). This modified dorsal fin ray can produce a glow used to fish (or angle) for prey within the dim depths of the ocean. The bioluminescence is produced by symbiotic micro organism that reside contained in the bulbous head of the esca.

Male anglerfish lack the enduring lure and are a lot smaller, normally reaching a size of solely 3cm.

A male anglerfish spends the primary a part of his life looking for a feminine to whom he’ll then connect himself. He’ll finally fuse his circulatory system with hers, relying on her fully for vitamins, and reside out his life as a parasite or “dwelling testicle”.

It’s unknown why this fish was swimming vertically close to the floor. Researchers have speculated that the behaviour might have been associated to modifications in water temperature, or that the fish was merely on the finish of her life.

Watchers noticed the fish for a number of hours, till it died. Its physique was preserved and brought to the Museum of Nature and Archaeology in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the place it is going to be additional studied.

Sympathy for the seadevil

The video shortly went viral, inspiring numerous response movies, artworks, memes, a Pixar-style animation and a poem titled Icarus is the Anglerfish.

One Reddit person commented, “I wish to assume she is a revered previous grandmother who has dreamed her complete lifetime of seeing the daylight and the world above the water. She is aware of her time is nigh so she bade farewell to her family and friends and swam up in direction of the sunshine and no matter it would maintain for her as her life as an anglerfish involves a detailed.”

One particular person described the fish as her “feminist Roman Empire”, within the sense of an inspirational obsession that stuffed the identical position for her that the Roman Empire supposedly does for a lot of males.

Boguñá and Condrik Tenerife have since commented on the general public response. (The unique submit is in Spanish, however Instagram’s automated English translation is under.)

“He’s turn into a world icon, that’s clear. However removed from the romanticisation and try to humanise that has been given to its tragic story, I feel that what this occasion has been for is to awaken the curiosity of the ocean to PEOPLE, particularly the youthful ones, and maybe, it additionally serves that messages about marine ecosystem conservation can attain so many extra individuals.”

From horrors to heroes

The outpouring of empathy for the anglerfish is surprising. With their glowing lures and fang-filled mouths, the creatures have lengthy been archetypal horrors of the abyss.

As I’ve written elsewhere, the anglerfish’s excessive sexual dimorphism and parasitism, together with its unsettling anatomy, have made it the “iconic ambassador of the deep sea”. Anglerfish or angler-inspired aliens have appeared as antagonists in movies akin to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999), Discovering Nemo (2003), The SpongeBob SquarePants Film (2004) and Luca (2021).

The reception of “Icarus” (as some name her) in common tradition signifies a maybe shocking capability for empathy towards animals that aren’t conventionally cute or lovely. It stands in stark distinction to the destiny of the deep-sea blobfish Psychrolutes marcidus, which in 2013 was voted the world’s ugliest animal.

Maybe the title is a clue: individuals have seen within the fish a creature striving to succeed in the sunshine, who died on account of her quest.

However does our projection of human feelings and needs onto non-human animals danger misunderstanding scientific actuality? Nearly definitely – however, as US environmental humanities researcher Stacy Alaimo has argued, it could even have advantages:

“Deep-sea creatures are sometimes pictured as aliens from one other planet, and I feel that will get individuals fascinated by them as a result of we’re all fascinated by novelty and weirdness and the surreal […] I feel that may be optimistic, however the concept of the alien can even minimize us off from any duty.”

The deep sea and its inhabitants face rising threats from seabed mining, plastic air pollution, and the consequences of human-induced local weather change. They want all of the empathy they’ll get.

Prema Arasu is a postdoctoral analysis fellow on the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Analysis Centre. This text is republished from The Dialog.