Science is Fun Fridays!
Barreleye fish are equipped with a see-through head so that their eyes can view above as they navigate the dark depths of the ocean, approximately 2,000 to 2,600 feet down.
The "vision balls" are not the front facing conventional looking eyes, but rather the glowing green orbs. The front is actually their olfactory organs, which can smell chemical cues in the water.
They often steal their food from the dangling tentacles of siphonophores, as they move above the fish. The eyes are incredibly well adapted to spotting the silhouettes of edible animals, such as small crustaceans. The eyes then roll forward as they eat - apparently they watch their small mouthfuls so as not to overtake.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute recently came across one of these creatures with their ROV, Ventana.
MBARI also has a second ROV, Don Ricketts. Together they have logged more than 5,600 successful dives and recorded more than 27,000 hours of footage. They've only encountered this fish 9 times.
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