Rare Albino Ratfish With Eerie, Silvery Sheen Caught Off Washington Coast; 'It Must Have Been Like A Beacon'

Rare Albino Ratfish With Eerie, Silvery Sheen Caught Off Washington Coast; 'It Must Have Been Like A Beacon'

Source: Underwatertimes

9/24/2007

Rare Albino Ratfish With Eerie, Silvery Sheen Caught Off Washington Coast; 'It Must Have Been Like A Beacon'

Washington -- A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Whidbey Island in Washington state is the only completely albino fish ever seen by both the curator of the University of Washington's 7.2 million-specimen fish collection and a fish and wildlife biologist with more than 20 years of sampling fish in Puget Sound.

"Ratfish usually hang out in places with soft, muddy bottoms," says Jon Reum, the aquatic and fishery sciences doctoral student who found the albino ratfish during a UW research project. "The typical ratfish in Puget Sound is brown or black with a smattering of white spots so it blends in with the sediments."

This fish was almost pure white with a crystalline layer near the surface of its skin that gave it a silvery sheen.

"It must have been like a beacon," says Ted Pietsch, UW professor of fisheries and aquatic sciences and curator of the UW fish collection. "Why didn't it get eaten, long before this, by some predator, for example, by a spiny dogfish so common in Puget Sound and that love to devour ratfish""

The foot-long female may have been 2 or 3 years old, Reum and Pietsch estimate, making her a teenager in the ratfish world.

She was caught this summer in about 200 feet of water during a UW research project examining the food web in Hood Canal and Puget Sound. Puget Sound is the nation's second-largest estuary in the Lower 48 after Chesapeake Bay. The city of Seattle, home to about 4 million people, is built on its shores. Puget Sound connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the north.

Continue...

News Id		Source	Stamp	country
2901	Ученые заинтересовались феноменом глубинной подледной рыбалки на Байкале	interfax	2022-05-20	RU
2902	App to Provide Verified Sightings of Sharks off New England	Associated Press	2022-05-18	US
2903	Native Fish Returns to Maine Lake After Two-Century Absence	Associated Press	2022-05-19	US
2904	Record-Breaking Sunfish Caught in Georgia's Satilla River	Associated Press	2022-05-14	US
2905	Новый дрон с присоской может летать, плавать или ездить автостопом	ridus	2022-05-19	CN
2906	Пропавшее озеро	ohotniki	2022-05-13	RU
2907	Fisher groups are the marine militia in Indonesia’s war on illegal fishing	mongabay	2022-05-06	ID
2908	New lobster fishing rules to protect endangered right whales have taken effect	bangordailynews	2022-05-03	US
2909	Sea Shepherd and Environmental Divers retrieve 10km of discarded fishing line from The Spit	ABC Gold Coast	2022-05-03	AU
2910	Cambodian fishermen hook enormous, endangered freshwater stingray	scmp	2022-05-11	KH
2911	Atlantic herring industry in Maine gets over $7 million to cope with fish losses	newscentermaine	2022-05-05	US
2912	Catch a glimpse! Rare deep-sea fish found in Monterey Bay, US by experts	wionews	2022-05-09	US
2913	They’re less terrifying than you think — but still, those teeth	harvard	2022-05-06	US
2914	Eeling industry hits back at calls to ban commercial fishing of longfin eels	Newshub	2022-05-07	NZ
2915	The people who risk their lives for a catch	theguardian	2022-05-08	UK
2916	‘Testicle’ fish has social media convinced it’s really a ‘sex toy’	nypost	2022-05-03	US
2917	Exceptional Anglers to teach students with special needs how to fish	al	2022-05-04	US
2918	Maine dam owner to make changes to try to save salmon	myjournalcourier	2022-05-02	US
2919	Illegally-Stocked Walleye Caught in Idaho's Lake Cascade	usnews	2022-05-10	US
2920	The Mystery of the Puffer Fish Helmets of Kiribati	atlasobscura	2022-04-26	KI
2921	Missing 88-year-old fisherman found dead in water wearing life jacket, TX officials say	miamiherald	2022-04-27	US
2922	Divers to retrieve lost fishing gear near sunken destroyer off San Pedro	ocregister	2022-04-27	US
2923	World-first women's fly fishing championships beckons Tasmanian trio	ABC Northern Tasmania	2022-05-01	AU
2924	Chinese ‘Devil’s Vessels’ - Sweeping Up The Seas	tippinsights	2022-04-23	CN
2925	SeaSick: Is the quota system the best way to sustain our fisheries for future generations?	stuff	2022-04-26	NZ

116 of [218 - pages.]