Last December one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history (measuring 9 on the Richter Scale), struck just off Sumatra, Indonesia, in a fault line running deep under the water. The rupture caused massive tsunamis, that hurtled away from the epicenter, reaching shores as far away as Africa.
A few days after the disaster, a friend and fellow fishkeeper sent me an e-mail containing a number of images depicting strange, deep-water fish that were supposedly washed up by onto shore by the huge waves and cataloged by scientists.
Although these are, in fact, genuine images of some very strange deep-sea creatures, these photographs have nothing to do with the Indian Ocean tsunami. They date from mid-2003 and were taken by researchers on the NORFANZ voyage, a joint Australian-New Zealand research expedition conducted in May-June 2003 to explore deep sea habitats and biodiversity in the Tasman Sea. These photographs can be viewed on Australia’s National Oceans Office web site.
While I hate to see these creatures dragged up from the abyss, I am very much a “deep junky”, and take great delight in learning more about marine life from the murky depths. Mostly, it is for this reason that I have developed such a strong interest in both powered and unpowered DIY ROV technology.
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- Crab
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
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- Deep Water Fish
Fish from the NORFRANZ expedition
Wow…talk about a serious amount of ugly. Very cool pictures. I’ll take two of the second one with fries and a large coke.
your keen Matt. My local fish shop sells deep fried battered Mar’s bars…..and i thought that was bad……………………
I got the same email from my dad right after the tsunami. It’s really made the rounds.
If you’re looking for other deep sea fish, check out NOVA’s Deep Sea Bestiary (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/abyss/life/bestiary.html). Sadly, a few of the images are only drawings, but there are plenty of photos to give you nightmares for days…
haha thats sick but your really should build a water proof fisha ndlet it say down in da ocean for like a year or 4 months ors somthing lik ethat and see wat kina things are down thyere!
this is soo weird
weirdest fish ever
It’s a good thing half these creatures in the pics have been discovered already, they they just are hard to see and find since they’re so far under the ocean. They still ARE a bit scarey looking though.
Its a shame these natural disasters occur and i have had several tsunami nightmares because it scares the hell out of me, but look what can be learnt from them…new species. One of these ugly buggers could hold the cure for cancer?? just a thought………..
I love deep sea fish, its the closest we are to come to alien life, at least in our lifetime. So fascinating!
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these fishes are really ugly and fisher must be careful
these fish are very complax they look obscuer and they are majectic creatures of the deep for instance the gulper eel on the rabbit fish the fang tooth the frilled shark and so on they might be more creatures that we might never see they might be a fish that lives for 100 years these are important questions
actually these fish are not so unusual even before 2005 they were already discovered eg.. theres a gupler eel, hatcher fish , viper fish, giant isopod, rat fish, s and theres even a picture of a squid seriously it ai’nt anything new! but the last two pictures and that crab on the first row that i’ve never seen.
those fish are like wicked looking that 1st photo on the right is awsome i would totally add that to my fish tank. its pretty neat how those fishies washed up… just imagine all the fish in the world, in the deepest waters, there could be hundreds of new different species of fish out there. its incredible
I have these exact same pictures from an email that was sent long before the tsunami
Most people don’t actually read the article. I point out in it that these fish are not from the tsunami, but rather the NOFRANZ expedition.
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first off [featuredcomment]I HATE people who say that these creatures are gross, ugly and or disgusting[/featuredcomment]. however imo it’s very unfortunate that they got washed up. they are all beautiful in there own unique manner.
Wow those creatures are really impressing. Just made a scholl task about them
This is so amazing and unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh shit did you not seeeeee those terrifying creatures, oh God!!!!!!!!!
the fish are so strange!!!!!