The ocean hides incredible and still unknown wonders, just think that more people have walked on the moon than they have been on the ocean floor.
A complex and delicate world, where the disappearance of a species could have enormous consequences for the ecosystems of the world, even for “ugly” and less appreciated fish like the anglerfish.
The anglerfish (whose females have a fin enlarged overhanging the eyes and their mouth that acts as a bait with bio-luminescent bacteria inside them, thanks to which, in the dark, it succeeded in deceiving and attracting the preys) is a creature of the most well-known abysses (it can be found occasionally on fishermen’s benches)
The interconnection of the food web connects all the species, and the disappearance of one threatens to fray everything. If the anglerfish in the ocean disappeared, their prey (small fish and shrimp) would explode with numbers and another predator would “step forward” to replace them. As well as the animals that like anglerfish should look for a new prey.
Being a fish present in all the oceans of the world it can hardly disappear with an epidemic, and is not even particularly targeted by the fishing market, being an isolated and abysmal fish. But this does not mean that it is free of risks, indeed. There is a threat that could affect the anglerfish, the threat of global warming.
Temperatures in the deep ocean are very stable, they don’t change much. The anglerfish lives their entire life in depth with almost constant temperatures; so even small changes in temperature can affect them.
If global warming can be a risk for an animal that tends to be not in danger or threatened, what damage can it cause to other species? The damage to ecosystems and to the fishing market itself could be enormous.
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