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
2101	Fisherman survives two days in Atlantic Ocean after falling overboard on Christmas Day	9news	2022-12-29	BR
2102	Chile farms hit by new algal attack	fishfarmermagazine	2022-01-13	CH
2103	Chiles mysterious fish death phenomenon is perplexing scientists	euronews	2022-02-22	CH
2104	Argentina, the next battleground for illegal fishing	chinadialogueocean	2018-03-05	AR
2105	Akihito turns 89, enjoys peaceful life with Michiko, researching fish	asahi	2022-12-23	JP
2106	Preparations for ice fishing village underway in Lockport, Man	msn	2023-01-01	CA
2107	Meet a rainbow fish and other new species discovered in 2022	CTV News	2023-01-01	CA
2108	American Angler (Possibly) Breaks Canadian Smallmouth Bass Record	fishncanada	2022-11-10	US
2109	Northern Pike Attacks Husky	fishncanada	2022-11-10	CA
2110	Seeking to optimise RAS-grown salmon production	The Fish Site	2022-12-29	US
2111	US Gets 1 Bid for Oil and Gas Lease in Alaska's Cook Inlet	usnews	2022-12-30	US
2112	Первые поклевки со льда	Охотники.ру	2022-12-24	RU
2113	Blood-sucking fish in its own league	odt	2022-12-12	NZ
2114	Old Mini Cooper transformed for fish to swim with rocks and plants	indianexpress	2022-12-14	IN
2115	Illegal fish stocking at Virginia reservoir raises concerns about impact on native species	wavy	2022-12-16	US
2116	Scientists finds stem cell network in ancient fish	mirage news	2022-12-13	US
2117	Red tide results in 1,700 pounds of dead fish along St. Pete Beach	mysuncoast	2022-12-13	US
2118	'Collective grief' hits Atlantic Canada after loss of Nova Scotia fisherman	msn	2022-12-28	CA
2119	Pink salmon earns Fish of the Year	chicago suntimes	2022-12-28	US
2120	Поиск рыбца в горной реке	Охотники.ру	2022-12-23	RU
2121	A fish that's swum in Maine ponds since the Ice Age faces an uncertain future	Connecticut Public Radio / WNPR	2022-12-12	US
2122	Maine gets federal money to improve migratory fish passage, habitat	maine public	2022-12-15	US
2123	Suit targets Washington fish farming ban, seeks stay for 300,000 trout	washington examiner	2022-12-17	US
2124	Fish see in the dark thanks to extra layers of rod cells in their eyes	newscientist	2022-12-21	US
2125	Protecting Westslope Cutthroat with a new fish barrier	suncruisermedia	2015-12-19	CA