Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, the production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Boga bam here. Anglerfish have got an
Speaker 1: angle all right, but it's probably not to win anyone
Speaker 1: over with their intensely toothy looks. Or rather, their end
Speaker 1: game is to attract their prey using a form of
Speaker 1: fishing known as angling. Oh we're an angle, which is
Speaker 1: a sort of bony hook. Protrusion is used to lure
Speaker 1: in and catch an unsuspecting fish. That's right, just like
Speaker 1: a fisherman sitting with a pole in hand. Anglerfish do
Speaker 1: indeed fish, except they do it from the ocean floor.
Speaker 1: No tackle boxer bait needed. The carnivorous female anglerfish wait
Speaker 1: patiently in the depths of the sparsely populated deep sea
Speaker 1: to literally lure in their next meal. They wiggle and
Speaker 1: angle a rod like extension of their dorsal spine that
Speaker 1: protrudes from their head and amidst light. Once their prey
Speaker 1: comes close, the female strikes and stags them, using her large,
Speaker 1: pointy teeth to chomp them up, even if they're up
Speaker 1: to twice her size and in. Scientists captured images of
Speaker 1: a female with numerous thin filaments extending from her body
Speaker 1: In addition to her main dorsal appendage, these filaments also
Speaker 1: emit light, creating a bioluminescent web of whiskers to attract
Speaker 1: and surround their prey. Some species of anglerfish live in
Speaker 1: more shallow tropical waters, but the ones that pique the
Speaker 1: interests of scientists are those that live in the deep,
Speaker 1: murky depths of the ocean, some as deep as sixteen
Speaker 1: thousand feet or five thousand meters. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on how Stuff Work. Spoke via email
Speaker 1: with Ted Pich, a professor at the School of Aquatic
Speaker 1: and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington and author
Speaker 1: of Oceanic Anglerfish is Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea
Speaker 1: and whose name I hope I pronounced correctly. He's been
Speaker 1: studying the elusive anglerfish almost his entire career. He said,
Speaker 1: there are about a hundred and sixty six species so far,
Speaker 1: but new ones are still coming up. They live so
Speaker 1: deep that we don't really have a good idea of
Speaker 1: how big they actually get. We send nets down to
Speaker 1: collect them, and the deeper we go, the larger specimens
Speaker 1: come up. But how do they manage to stay so
Speaker 1: close to the ocean floor at such depths. Pich shares
Speaker 1: that most anglerfish, along with some other deep sea fish,
Speaker 1: don't have a swim bladder. That's the gas filled sack
Speaker 1: that helps many fish stay afloat without the need to
Speaker 1: constantly swim. The lack of a swim bladder not only
Speaker 1: helps anglerfish stay near the bottom, it also conserves energy,
Speaker 1: energy that's at a premium given the difficulty of finding
Speaker 1: a meal so far down. Female anglerfish are definitely running
Speaker 1: the deep sea show, Piche explained. Most females aren't much
Speaker 1: larger than your fist, but other species are close to
Speaker 1: four feet that's one point two meters long. A male
Speaker 1: angler fish, on the other hand, is usually an inch
Speaker 1: two and a half centimeter are so long in the
Speaker 1: most extreme cases, the female is sixty times the length
Speaker 1: and about half a million times as heavy as the male.
Speaker 1: The male, who has no way to feed itself, must
Speaker 1: rely completely on the female for survival. A male will
Speaker 1: actually merge with a female, not because they're in love,
Speaker 1: a Piche said. They the males have tiny pincher like
Speaker 1: teeth on the tip of their snout and they bite
Speaker 1: on to the female. The blood flow from the female
Speaker 1: to the male provides the nutrients if they don't find
Speaker 1: a female their toast. The scientists believe the female emits
Speaker 1: alluring pheromones that the male can sniff out with his
Speaker 1: proportionately large nostrils. Their relationship really is quite unique. A
Speaker 1: Pipe said, these are the only animals in the world
Speaker 1: that attach permanently and exchange fluid. Scientists note that the
Speaker 1: size difference is a survival mechanism that allows them to
Speaker 1: thrive on the limited deep sea menu. If they were
Speaker 1: both large, it would take a whole lot more food
Speaker 1: and enter g to keep them alive and keep their
Speaker 1: unique reproductive cycle going. While the female has to carry
Speaker 1: the little guy around and keep him fed, she's also
Speaker 1: getting a pretty good deal out of it too. There's
Speaker 1: no need to put herself out there to attract a
Speaker 1: loyal partner. She's got a sperm bank or two, or
Speaker 1: three or even six available to fertilize her eggs. Luckily,
Speaker 1: for anglerfish and the ecosystem, you won't find them making
Speaker 1: an appearance on anyone's dinner plate. And it's not just
Speaker 1: because they're elusive and scary to look at. Piche says,
Speaker 1: they're fatty and oily composition wouldn't make for a very
Speaker 1: tasty meal. Well, that is, unless you're talking to a
Speaker 1: sperm whale. Anglerfish remains have been found in whale stomachs
Speaker 1: and they seem to be the main predator of the
Speaker 1: larger anglerfish species. While it's extremely challenging to find angler
Speaker 1: fish and there's still somewhat of a mystery, scientists are
Speaker 1: entering a new realm of studying their behavior, and while
Speaker 1: scary looking teeth and dismaying face may not look appealing
Speaker 1: to most of us humans, they continue to light up
Speaker 1: the deep sea, attracting an oh so lucky male anglerfish
Speaker 1: right along with their next deep sea dinner. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article the deep Ocean anglerfish catches
Speaker 1: Prey with the Lure on its Head on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com, written by Katie Carmen. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four
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