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
4051	Guernsey aquarium thief used fish to win competition	BBC News	2013-01-10	US
4052	Pike found choked on zander in Netherlands	BBC News	2013-01-10	NL
4053	Computerized fishing rod won't put worms on hooks	cnet	2013-01-04	CA
4054	Greens now betray the wild fish	canadafreepress	2013-01-04	US
4055	The adventure interview: Jeremy Wade	telegraph	2013-01-01	US
4056	True facts about the anglerfish	gizmodo	2012-12-28	US
4057	Transgenic fish wins US regulatory backing A fast-growing salmon moves closer to approval after a fishy delay.	nature	2012-12-22	US
4058	Fisherman towed out to sea while catching record 29lb fish	telegraph	2012-12-21	US
4059	Mesh pens don't overcrowd salmon: MUN researcher	CBC News	2012-12-20	CA
4060	Tay salmon anglers accused of harassing canoeists	The Courier Reporter	2012-12-18	UK
4061	Proposal to prohibit use of carbon monoxide as a fish processing aid	voxy	2012-12-18	NZ
4062	PolitiFact calls claims of menhaden declines “Mostly False”, is completely wrong	southernfriedscience	2012-12-17	US
4063	Truck driver records collision with giant fish falling from sky	usatoday	2021-04-16	CA
4064	Changing environment may be to blame for reduced fish populations	thecordovatimes	2021-04-09	CA
4065	3 people banned from fishing anywhere in Canada after overfishing violations near Nootka Sound	CBC News	2021-04-11	CA
4066	NOAA needs leader who can talk to fishermen	bostonglobe	2012-12-17	US
4067	Blind cat fish species discovered	BBC Tamil Service	2012-12-13	CA
4068	445-pound yellowfin tuna largest ever caught on rod and reel	petethomasoutdoors	2012-12-09	CA
4069	Watch this catfish go completely orca on a pigeon	gizmodo	2012-12-06	FR
4070	Norway's rakfisk: Is this the world's smelliest fish?	BBC News	2012-12-01	NO
4071	Robocod: Homeland Security adds underwater drones to their arsenal with robots based on fish	dailymail	2012-11-28	UK
4072	Man nearly dies in Browns River near Courtenay after he and 2 dogs fall in	cheknews	2018-11-13	CA
4073	How Microfishing Took the Angling World by (Very Small) Storm	hakaimagazine	2021-04-13	US
4074	Ousted Kentucky Fish and Wildlife chief back on the job with a $140,000+ contract	kentucky	2021-04-15	US
4075	Tennessee angler reels in 30-year-old sturgeon while fishing for catfish	Fox News	2021-04-15	US

162 of [217 - pages.]