Deep-sea angler fish washes up on shore in Southern California

Reminding me why I never step foot into the ocean, a deep-sea angler fish washed ashore in Crystal Cove, California last Friday. They usually lives in waters as deep as 3,000 feet and it’s super rare for them be found intact, let alone washed up on a shore.

Last Friday morning an incredible deep sea fish washed up on shore in Crystal Cove State Park’s Marine Protected Area (MPA). There are more than 200 species of angler fish worldwide and this particular fish is most likely the Pacific Football Fish. Only females possess a long stalk on the head with bioluminescent tips used as a lure to entice prey in the darkness of waters as deep as 3,000 feet! Their teeth, like pointed shards of glass, are transparent and their large mouth is capable of sucking up and swallowing prey the size of their own body. While females can reach lengths of 24 inches males only grow to be about an inch long and their sole purpose is to find a female and help her reproduce. Males latch onto the female with their teeth and become “sexual parasites,” eventually coalescing with the female until nothing is left of their form but their testes for reproduction. Wild! To see an actual angler fish intact is very rare and it is unknown how or why the fish ended up on the shore. Seeing this strange and fascinating fish is a testament to the diversity of marine life lurking below the water’s surface in California’s MPAs and as scientists continue to learn more about these deep sea creatures it’s important to reflect on how much is still to be learned from our wonderful ocean 🌊

So you’re telling me the ocean is filled with sharks and jellyfish and things that look like this and people still voluntarily go in there? Yeah, no thanks. If you need me, I’ll be in my bed where the only spiky-toothed monster is my girlfriend’s vagina.

Keep going for some more photos from the Crystal Cove State Park Instagram.