A fish once dubbed the world’s ‘ugliest’ has taken the crown for Latest Zealand’s ‘Fish of the 12 months’.
The lovable – albeit, hideous – blobfish was named Fish of the 12 months by the Mountain to Sea Conservation Trust, which helps to lift awareness about Latest Zealand’s marine life.
The fish species became a viral sensation in 2013 when a photograph of the normally deep-sea-dwelling creature was shared online.
The blobfish look relatively normal after they’re at their natural habitat depth of around 2,000 to 4,000 feet, lurking among the many seabed.
But when pulled as much as the surface, its body deforms into a large blob resulting from the pressure change.
Kim Jones, co-director of the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust said: ‘The blobfish’s unconventional beauty helped get voters over the road.’
Radio hosts Sarah Gandy and Paul Flynn said on their show: ‘The blobfish had been sitting patiently on the ocean floor, mouth open waiting for the following mollusc to come back through to eat.
‘He has been bullied his whole life and we thought, ‘Stuff this, it’s time for the blobfish to have his moment within the sun’, and what an excellent moment it’s!’
Blob fish are unique in that they don’t have a skeleton – as an alternative, their body is soft and ‘blobby’, held together by the immense pressure of their deep-sea environment.
Spokesperson for the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust Konrad Kurta said: ‘It type of sits there and waits for prey to come back very close and practically walk into its mouth before it eats them.’
He added that the species may have the option to live as much as 130 years old, and females can lay as much as 100,000 eggs in a single nest.
The blobfish lives at the underside of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
They eat crabs, lobsters, molluscs and sea urchins.
In 2013, hundreds voted for the inedible blobfish to develop into the brand new mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society (UAPS) in partnership with the National Science + Engineering Competition.
Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
MORE: Woman who fled Australia after snatching wombat reveals why she did it
MORE: Outraged on the wombat video? The fact is way worse
MORE: Wombat kidnapper flees Australia after PM told her ‘try it with a crocodile’
