Thar She Glows!
A look at the incredible light show taking place in the deep sea.
“Every so often, however, an animal appears. Perhaps a jellyfish. Or perhaps a small shrimp. Or—wait! Wow! I almost choked on my coffee. A fish has just appeared on the screen, one I’ve read about but never seen. For the most part, it looks like a regular fish. But attached to its head, it has a long stalk and at the end of the stalk, what looks like a fat, juicy, glowing worm. But the worm is not a worm. It’s part of the fish, which uses the ‘worm’ as bait, tempting the incautious and the hungry to their doom. This is an anglerfish, one of the most voracious predators of the deep. Unlike, say, sharks, which chase down their victims, anglerfish are ambush predators, enticing prey close by means of the glowing lure, then pouncing. (Lures work because many creatures interpret light to mean food.)”
—From “Luminous Life,” Olivia Judson’s National Geographic story about searching out the vast array of bioluminescent creatures in the sea (efforts that could help protect marine ecosystems)
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