Ancistrus kellerae

The Ancistrus kellerae, is a type of catfish that was discovered in the Amazon. This is one of the weirdest looking fish I have ever seen in my life. In the featured image, you can see the catfish and just how alien like it looks. The eyes are almost albino-like to help see in the murky shallows of the Amazon. The face of the fish has these tentacle like structure coming off of it. This is apparently use to attract mates, the more tentacles the more likely that fish is to reproduce.

The rest of the fish is made completely of armor, which means a bone and scale composition. This is the ridges you can see as you look down to the catfishes tail. Commonly found in South America or as scientist call it the “Guiana Shield”, which is parts of Guyana, Venezuela, and Colombia. A big issue with these fish are that any little change in the water ways can kill these fish. Most health problems found in the fish living there are from agriculture runoff that contains pesticides, removal of habitats, and the byproducts from gold mining. Mining is a problem because once the process of mining is complete, mercury can be found in many of the rocks when looking for gold. Then once everything is cleaned in the facility the water runoff which contains the mercury will go into the rivers and is extremely harmful to all live in that river.

https://www.livescience.com/64763-catifsh-species-head-tentacles.html

Sarcastic Fringehead

The Sarcastic Fringehead, scientifically known as Neoclinus Blanchardi is a very odd predatorial fish. From an outsiders look at the creature it looks like an ordinary long eel/fish, but once you get in its face its mouth completely opens up like the scene of the Dilophosaurus in Jurassic park. This fish was found in the pacific coast closest to North America. This fish is also extremely predatorial and will let nothing near its home without a fight.

These fish commonly live in shells or holes made underground, they may also fight other crabs for a better shell to live in. This is becoming an issue for the fish because of human intervention. The pollution of the ocean and coast lines make it extremely hard for these animals to live in its natural habitat. Scientist are now finding more and more of the Fringeheads to be living inside empty cans, bottles, and other trash they can find. This can cause many of the fish health problems depending on the item they live in and may even cause them to get stuck inside of there home. I found it very interesting how in many of the researchers that encountered this rare fish have had issues with these fish attacking them. Even to go as far as the fish biting through divers wet suits and leaving holes. To think that a tiny fish like this can bite through a wet suit I wonder how much damage it could do to someone’s finger.

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/sarcastic_fringehead/

https://io9.gizmodo.com/meet-the-sarcastic-fringehead-an-oddly-named-fish-who-5911216

Frilled Shark

The Frilled Shark, scientifically know as “Chlamydoselachus Anguineus” is a terrifying creature that’s body resembles an eel. The name of the shark comes from its snake like head that opens up to look like a prehistoric dinosaur. On each side of its body are frill like gills which allow the creature to live very deep in the ocean. The biggest recorded Frilled shark ever caught was nearly seven feet long, and was found to live up to 25 years. They can also be commonly found at depths of 5,000 feet in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Scientist have come to the conclusion that these sharks hunt by waiting for prey to come to them and then striking them like a snake does. Not to much else is know of these rare creatures. The IUCN, a company that records all data of endangered/threatened species says the Frilled shark is no where near being on the list. Rarely commercial fishers will pull up a shark or two but they are not in any danger. To my surprise there was a group of researchers who tried to care for a Frilled shark in a man made aquarium, but couldn’t recreate the same environment for the shark to thrive in. It was then said it died a few hours later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frilled_shark

https://animals.net/frilled-shark/

Hawksbill Sea Turtle

The Hawksbill sea turtle is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian oceans and is considered a tropical turtle. It is also a highly endangered species and is under extreme watch conditions to try and revive the population. What makes this turtle so special is that it’s shell can glow in the dark. The outer shell of this turtle can vary from a neon red to a lime green color. This is beneficial for a sea turtle to be able to attract prey, scare off other predators and finally to communicate with other turtles. The turtle itself can grow up to 150 pounds and live for around 50 years.

Like many other sea creatures human intervention is the downfall for their species. Overfishing is one of the most impacting factors in why the population is declining rapidly. Another factor is that when these turtle go to lay their eggs on a beach, people will come and harvest the eggs and sell them illegally on the market. It really is upsetting to see such a beautiful creature struggle to survive because of what we force them through. There needs to be more laws and protective services to protect the younglings from poachers and overfishing. Finally as most people know the pollution in our oceans is one of the biggest factors in why these turtles are dying. The sponges and all other waste, such as straws and plastic objects are being eaten by turtle, which then lead to them dying. This is constantly being talked about on the news, I just hope we will find a solution to clean up the oceans, before all the species in it die off.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/h/hawksbill-sea-turtle/

https://www.theloop.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/rsjvl.gif

Genie’s Dogfish

The Genie’s dogfish, scientifically known as the Squalus Clarkae was found in the depths of the Golf of Mexico. The shark itself is only around 20 to 28 inches long, but it’s most interesting quality is how big it’s eyes are. According to researchers, it’s hard to determine a new species just from looking at the animal itself. A process must be done by taking a sample of its blood and looking at it’s genetics. This will show the evolutionary process the creature has been through as well as it’s morphology.

Most new shark species being found are in low population sizes because of shark finning and overfishing. The problem is that when these fishing boats go out in Gulf or the Atlantic ocean, they go out fishing at depths where most of these deep water sharks live in. This causes the sharks to be accidentally caught. This may not be the intent for the fishers, but after being caught if the fishermen decide to release the sharks the chances for the creature to live are cut severely. I think that governments need to focus on creating more laws to prevent fishermen from overfishing, and increase the number of people who will actually enforce the laws. This is a big problem is areas near the Atlantic ocean, where most ocean species of fish are on the brink of extinction. This needs to change otherwise the oceans may not ever recover from the human races mistakes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/07/19/shark-week-scientists-discover-deepwater-shark-species-genies-dogfish/799366002/

https://www.livescience.com/63086-new-genies-dogfish-shark.html