Fish Pix

“Under the sea / darling it’s better, down where it’s wetter, take it from me!” To those of you who didn’t recognize the phenomenal soundtrack to Ariel, I’m sure you can still relate to the sentiment. This week, we’re going to leave solid ground and retreat down into the depths of the ocean to explore some of the some of the smallest critters down there: fish larva. Because they’re so delicate, they get damaged when collected by nets, so researchers have been collaborating with scuba divers to better understand these tiny, fragile creatures. At night, the larva migrate to the surface, which is when divers were able to take incredible photos that reveal colors, body structures, and behaviors that have been previously unstudied. Larval fishes are notoriously difficult to identify, so ichthyologists have been using these photos to correlate form with function. They’ve also been able to discover new colorings on larva. For example, the adult deep-sea tripodfish (Bathymicrops sp.) looks like a run-of-the-mill, nondescript fish. However, its ghostly blue larva, as shown below, has a flamboyant orange-dotted coloring with lovely pectoral fins. Truly, it’s better down here where it’s wetter. (You can find more pictures and information here.)

Natalie Wang is currently working on her undergraduate degree in neuroscience and medicine, science, and the humanities at Johns Hopkins University as a Hodson Trust Scholar. Her research interests are in DNA damage and repair, as well as post-operative delirium in older patients. Natalie started volunteering with WIS PDX in 2019 as a member of the outreach and education team, and is now the producer and a co-host of WIS's podcast, WISterhood. When not listening to sad music or doom-scrolling on Twitter, she can be found checking closets for Narnia.