No, it’s not your mother-in-law or your teenage daughter’s next date! It’s the blobfish! Officially known as Psychrolutes marcidus, these ghastly looking fish lives deep in the ocean off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. The blobfish is named as such due to it’s body being mostly a gelatinous mass that has a density much less than water. This gives it the ability to live in the crushing pressures of the deep ocean.

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Photo source: NOAA.gov

How deep you ask? Photos have been taken of live blobfish in their natural environment by robotic ROVs at depths of over 9,000 feet. That is nearly double the depth of the BP oil well that was leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists first discovered the blobfish several years ago but they are rarely ever seen up close and personal. With a face like it’s, who can blame us?

At such depths, the pressure is staggering. But thanks to the gelatinous mass of the blobfish, it can just float around without hardly moving a muscle. That is to say, if it has any muscles? But the blobfish doesn’t need muscles anyway. They pretty much just float about without expending any energy.

So lazy is this fish that it just swallows whatever edible matter that happens to float by in front of it! The blobfish is apparently not a very choosy diner. Not that it starves. There are plenty of other fish and other living things at such deep depths. Most of such creatures are about as odd looking as the blobfish, too!

But we should give some credit where credit is due. The blobfish is a patient beast. According to scientists, the female blobfish will stay put and sit, or float, right above the spot where she lays her eggs until they hatch. Of course, Nature being a cruel master, the mother blobfish winds up eating most of her own young should they get too close to her mouth.

For the lucky few whom the current manages to float away, young blobfish will eventually grow to an adult length of about 12 inches. Unfortunately, the blobfish may be an endangered species. Conservationists fear that deep sea bottom trawling being conducted by Australian and New Zealand fishing boats are impacting the blobfish environment. One has to wonder if the blobfish inspired Tom Wilson when he created the ‘Ziggy’ comic strip?

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