Walking Fish Threatened by Oil Spill

Pancake batfish

Your petroleum-powered car could be the indirect cause for several animal species to soon go extinct in the Gulf of Mexico.

The odd fish was named the Pancake batfish by ichthyologist Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University’s Museum of Natural Sciences in Baton Rouge, that co-discovered the new species recently with colleague Hsuan-Ching Ho of the Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.

The fish of which there are now known to be three species in total, live in a relatively narrow stretch of water that’s likely to be fouled if oil from BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil platform heavily taints the Loop Current off Florida’s west coast. It shares traits with it’s genetic cousin the deepsea Anglerfish that use a projection to entice curious potential meals a little closer to their mouth, but that aren’t easy to study since the are found at depths of over 3,000 feet (914 meters). Some scientific knowledge could be gained by studying the shallow water dwelling Pancake batfish, let’s hope that they don’t become extinct before this can be accomplished.

The Gulf of Mexico is home to quite a few ecological treasures that are now at risk including one of the largest seagrass beds in the world and the spawning grounds for the smalltooth sawfish in addition to the newly discovered Pancake batfish.