Today’s freakiness brings you closer to one of the past stars of this video, brought to you by a very special guest.
Casey Sokolovic, our friend and singular sea turtle champion (get the scoop on Casey and her efforts here), has the lowdown on this amazing and perplexing creepy fish.
Brrrrrr!!!
image: Wikimedia Commons
Are You Ready to Dive In?
TheIcefish can survive sub-zero water temperatures due to a special antifreeze glycoprotein in its blood and body fluids. Can you imagine freezing all the time?
If you’d like to give this fish the cold shoulder, then head to the continental shelf waters surrounding Antarctica.
What baffles the scientists about these “cold-blooded” fish? They can’t figure out how the Icefish can live at both ends of the earth – which are separated by thousands of miles of warm waters.
Icefish have been found in the Arctic as well as the Antartic and new species are still being found.
I’ll never see one of these fish, as their natural habitat is WAY too cold for me!
Today’s FFF is on the Ocean Sunfish, also called the Mola Mola (our favorite name for it).
You might not call this fish freaky, but its shape is the most unusual fish-like shape of any fish I’ve ever seen. Here are some quick facts about the Ocean Sunfish:
Mola Mola is the most commonly seen Ocean Sunfish, and is called the Common or round-tailed Mola. Other varieties include Masturus lanceolatus (sharp-tailed Mola) and Ranzania leavis (slender Mola).
Its “Ocean Sunfish” name comes from its tendency to “lie” atop the waves and appear to be sunbathing.
It has sandpaper-like skin and is opalescent silver color.
It’s the heaviest of all bony fish, weighing about one ton when fully grown, and it’s the biggest jelly-muncher in the ocean (see next fact).
There’s an official site to go to here to check out a map of Mola sightings, read research, get more facts and even adopt an Ocean Sunfish for yourself!
Dive in - the water is perfect, and the ocean's wonders await you. On O4E, we have fun, we educate and we ask our readers to think of and act for the future of the world's oceans. Plus, it's by a 10 year-old (with a little help from her journalist mom).
