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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →A female black seadevil anglerfish filmed near the ocean surface off the Canary Islands became an unlikely online symbol of struggle and loss. But the video cannot tell us why she was there: scientists have proposed several possibilities, and none has been confirmed. The fish died after the encounter; that fact does not prove she deliberately sought the light or that her ascent caused her death.
What the video shows
Researchers aboard the vessel Glaucus encountered the fish near the surface off the Canary Islands. National Geographic dates the sighting to January 26, 2025, and reports that wildlife photographer David Jara Boguñá filmed her. The team observed the fish for about an hour; she died shortly after the footage was made, and her body was collected for scientific study. A March 2025 University of Western Australia account says the sighting occurred “In February,” so reports differ on the date.
The fish was identified as a female humpback anglerfish, also known as a black seadevil. National Geographic uses the scientific name Melanocetus johnsonii; Monterey Bay Aquarium spells it Melanocetus johnsoni. She belongs to a deep-sea group rarely seen near the surface, making the encounter exceptional—but not the first recording of a living black seadevil. National Geographic notes that MBARI scientist Bruce Robison filmed one in Monterey Bay in 2014, at 1,900 feet.
Why does a black seadevil live in the deep sea?
The black seadevil is adapted to dark water, not to a life at the sunlit surface. Its conspicuous lure is used to attract prey in darkness. Monterey Bay Aquarium lists a worldwide depth range of 100–4,500 metres and a maximum size of 20 centimetres. University of Western Australia researcher Prema Arasu describes the twilight zone as 200–600 metres and says a photographed female typically grows up to 15 centimetres. Those figures describe different scopes: the aquarium gives a broader species depth range and maximum size, while Arasu gives a twilight-zone range and a typical size for females in her account.
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As Monterey Bay Aquarium aquarist Tommy Knowles puts it: “They’re not weird. They’re perfectly adapted for their environment.” The fish can look otherworldly to people; that appearance is not evidence that she was struggling toward a more familiar or welcoming world.
Why might she have reached the surface?
The cause is unknown. Scientists have suggested several possibilities, but none is a confirmed explanation for this fish’s ascent.
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| Possibility | What it would mean | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Prey with a gas bladder | Bruce Robison told National Geographic that the fish may have eaten prey whose gas bladder expanded, helping carry her upward. | Hypothesis; not confirmed. |
| Warm water rising from volcanic fissures | Robison also raised the possibility that the fish was caught in warm water rising from volcanic fissures. | Hypothesis; not confirmed. |
| Predator encounter or escape | Robison suggested a larger animal might have released her near the surface after capturing her. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution also reports the possibility that she was escaping a predator. | Hypothesis; not confirmed. |
| Illness, injury, or stress | Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution reports these as other possible explanations for an unusual ascent. | Hypothesis; not confirmed. |
None of these ideas establishes that the fish chose to swim toward sunlight. The reports also do not show that the ascent caused her death; they establish only that she died shortly after the observation. At the time of the University of Western Australia account, her specimen had been preserved and taken to the Museum of Nature and Archaeology in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for further study. That account does not establish the outcome of any later analysis.
Why did the footage feel heartbreaking?
Viewers supplied a story the footage itself cannot verify: a deep-sea animal striving toward the light and dying in the attempt. University of Western Australia researcher Prema Arasu says people framed the fish as a feminist icon or an Icarus-like figure. Those readings reveal how audiences made meaning from the encounter, not what the fish experienced or intended.
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Arasu argues that humanizing empathy can draw attention to the deep sea, while also warning that projection can misrepresent animal reality. Boguñá and Condrik Tenerife, whose comment UWA presents in English translation from Spanish, said: “He’s become a global icon, that’s clear. But far from the romanticisation and attempt to humanise that has been given to its tragic story, I think that what this event has been for is to awaken the curiosity of the sea to PEOPLE, especially the younger ones, and perhaps, it also serves that messages about marine ecosystem conservation can reach so many more people.”
The response can be moving without turning the fish into a character whose motives we know. The video documents a rare encounter; the heartbreak belongs to the human interpretations around it.
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Where to learn more about deep-sea life
Monterey Bay Aquarium’s black seadevil species page explains the fish’s habitat and hunting lure. Its deep-sea content and exhibit information offers a way to explore ocean life without treating a wild deep-sea fish as a pet.
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