The taxa of fishes called Gadiformes contains some of the most delicious and therefore commercially significant fishes in the ocean: cod, hake, pollock, haddock, burbot, and more. These fishes live in waters across the world, mostly in temperate or colder oceans, which makes sense to me on a basis of purely vibes—who’s ever heard of a tropical cod? But this taxa also contains a group of fishes called rocklings that, radically, have no commercial value whatsoever. Rocklings are all long and slender like Twizzlers and have a chin barbel and nostril barbels, giving some species the nickname three-bearded rocklings.
Scientists have just discovered a new species of three-bearded rockling, Gaidropsarus mauritanicus, which is just under three inches long and lives off the coast of Mauritania. Specifically, this fish lives in the world’s largest deep-water coral reef, the “Mauritanian Wall,” an extensive and ancient chain of corals that stretches for 360 miles and reaches heights up to 328 feet. The seas off Mauritania have incredibly biodiverse marine ecosystems and are known for these deep-water corals. Researchers had observed this small fish earlier from remotely operated vehicle dives, where it lurked around the sludge of waters thousands of feet deep. They noticed the fish’s large eyes, big head, and distinctly pink color, occasionally stippled with white spots.
Many of the three-bearded rocklings the researchers observed were taking shelter between shards of coral fragments, hiding inside dead coral, or lurking under various ledges. The researchers suggest the fish’s propensity for hiding may explain why they escaped detection by science for so long, as new species of vertebrates are relatively rare. Luckily, we will not be eating this new three-bearded rockling anytime soon, given its small size, distant home, and, presumably, wee little pink face.
-Sabrina Imbler
Image: Tomas Lundälv
