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
3576	Giant tarpon fish almost eats woman's hand during feeding time	telegraph	2021-07-20	UK
3577	Fish near angling hotspots are more clever, avoid capture	upi	2016-04-26	US
3578	DNR considers regulating underwater cameras, removing minimum size for sturgeon spearing	FOX 11 News	2021-06-28	US
3579	Fish and Game reports electroshocking, removing 10,654 rainbow trout from South Fork	idahostatejournal	2021-07-03	US
3580	Turkey now home to worst invasive fish species	dailysabah	2021-07-02	TU
3581	This underwater drone lures and photographs your pet fish	cnet	2016-04-18	US
3582	‘River Monsters’ host Jeremy Wade rarely eats fish	pagesix	2016-04-12	US
3583	Wild water snake climbs onto Texas man's lap for a fish snack	upi	2016-04-05	US
3584	‘Barbarian style’ ice fishing a fun alternative	lansingstatejournal	2016-03-26	CA
3585	Researchers Find Fish That Walks the Way Land Vertebrates Do	nytimes	2016-03-24	US
3586	Fish with jubilant expression on its face caught off Wareham	whdh	2021-06-25	US
3587	Probe launched over claims of ‘sonic torture’ at Scots fish farms	thenational	2021-06-27	UK
3588	Never give up on a fish! Idaho angler uses his noodle to free stuck catch	idahostatesman	2021-06-28	US
3589	Dubai bans use of fishing nets, announces plan to protect marine life	khaleejtimes	2021-06-21	SA
3590	Spain detains six for illegal fishing in Antarctica	news24	2016-03-18	SP
3591	Interview: The Threats Facing Monster Fish	kunr	2016-03-18	US
3592	Makayla Buttigieg, 10, catches 147kg marlin to break International Game Fish Association record	heraldsun	2016-03-18	UK
3593	Monster from the deep: Fishermen stunned after netting freaky fish in south China	dailymail	2016-03-15	UK
3594	Scientists solve mystery of torpedo-shaped fish with snout ending in claw-like structure	abc	2016-03-16	US
3595	Illegal tuna fishing impacts Pacific	news24	2016-03-15	US
3596	State Of Florida Launches Lionfish Category For Record Size Catches	underwatertimes	2016-03-14	US
3597	Washed up dead fish in Sask. turn into strange, beautiful art project	CBC News	2016-03-15	CA
3598	Why a nuclear power plant is New Jersey's hottest fishing spot	nj	2016-03-09	US
3599	Mother captures the bizarre moment her children head outside after a rainstorm and discover puddles full of FISH	dailymail	2016-03-16	UK
3600	Китайский разведывательный подводный дрон-акула	dambiev	2019-07-25	CN

143 of [217 - pages.]