Spooky deep-sea anglerfish video for Halloween

This video from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in the USA says about itself:

Spooky deep-sea anglerfish emerges for Halloween

The whipnose anglerfish has a longer, more streamlined body than other anglerfishes and an exceptionally long fishing appendage or illicium. The elaborate, shaggy lure or esca vibrates and glows enabling this sit-and-wait ambush predator to attract prey–most likely fishes, squids, and crustaceans–in the dark depths of the ocean.

This species (Gigantactis gargantua Bertelsen, Pietsch & Lavenberg, 1981) is one of the largest anglerfishes and can reach 408 millimeters (16 inches) in size. It is a female. The males are much smaller, although not parasitic, like in many other species of anglerfishes.

We spotted this one hovering upside down at 1,234 meters (4,048 feet) in waters 3,400 meters (11,154 feet) deep. These rare fish are typically found far above the seafloor in depths from 500 to 1,300 meters (1,640 to 4,265 feet). However, they have also been observed over two miles deep, drifting inverted just off the bottom.

Recently, MBARI scientists glimpsed an unknown whipnose anglerfish species fishing right above the seafloor 1,126 meters (3,694 feet) deep in waters off of southern California. As the researchers moved in to catch a closer look at this mysterious fish it disappeared, like a ghost, into clouds of soft sediment.

Video editor: Kyra Schlining

Music: Halloween Sputnik by Richard Desilets (Premiumbeat.com)