Okay so you’re not going to come across one while casually diving but we still cannot get over how fascinating some of these deep sea creatures are, so we decided to do a segment on “sea monsters”. They’re not actually monsters but hey I’m pretty sure this is what nightmares are made up of.
Our deep-sea fish for this week is the remarkable dragon fish.
The dragon fish has a fearsome reputation for being a pretty amazing predator at about 1500 meters below the sea. They use their flexible jaw hinges and photophores that act as headlights, located at the back of their eyes, in order to hunt and they are capable of swallowing literally anything that fits their mouth. The radiant barbel hanging below the mouth of the dragon fish is employed for tempting their prey in complete darkness. Once an unsuspecting prey is close it is snapped up in the dragonfish’s powerful jaws. They are known to move vertically whilst capturing their prey. Their teeth protrude out of the mouth and they even have teeth like structures on their tongues. Dragonfish don’t have any scales and are also the only creature to have chlorophyll in its eyes. The total population of this species is still unknown.