FISH WITH LIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 37, 7 November 1942, Page 6

FISH WITH LIGHTS

Strange Species Taken From Cook Strait DEEP SEA DENIZENS A number of unique deep-sea fish taken from the waters of Cook Strait during the past year have come into the possession of the Dominion Museum authorities at Wellington. Presented by Mr. A. C. Kaberry, Inspector of Fisheries, they have all been taken by Island Bay fishermen in water 109 fathoms or more deep, and most of them came from the stomachs of large food fishes, such as groper and ling. A remarkable feature of these fish is that they are, for the most part, quite black in colour, to harmonize with the gloomy depths in which they live. Most of them have enormous mouths in proportion to their size, and one has large sabre-like incurved teeth, appears to be able to dislocate its jaws to swallow fish as large as itself. Several of these fish carry their own lights, little circular objects, giving off a phosphorescent glow. Their structure is such that, used to enormous pressure of water, their delicate tissues become ruptured when they come to the surface and they cannot live in shallow water. Olive-green in colour, with brownishyellow tinges on the fins, brown spots on the mandible, and with a golden iris of the eye, Aspasmogaster hectoris, one of the discoveries, has been reported for the second time in New Zealand waters. It was taken in a crayfish-pot near the Karori light. ’Secured from the stomach of a groper taken by a hand line in 100 fathoms on the middle bank in Cook Strait, Bathytractis kopua is an entirely new species, similar to a certain marine fish of West Africa, and to a species taken in 67u fathoms of water off Pernambuco (Brazil). Taken from the stomach of a groper secured on Mana Bank, off Makara, in' about 100 fathoms of water, Lampanyctus alatus is a lantern fish of a species which has formerly been found in the north Caribbean Sen. Diaphus fulgens and Chauliodus danae are two other strange fish taken from Cook Strait, and fine specimens of the latter species have been obtained. All the new fish have been, examined and classified by Mr. W. G. Phillipps of the museum staff.