Deep-Sea Fish Has Hair—Oh Wait, Those Are Giant Parasites

Behold, the latest in deep-sea fashion: An unfortunate fish sporting parasitic copepods as pigtails. An international team of scientists affiliated with the Schmidt Ocean Institute and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute spotted the critters during a recent expedition to the South Sandwich Islands, in a remote stretch of the Atlantic Ocean off the coasts of South America and Antarctica. In haunting footage captured about 1,604 feet (489 meters) under the sea, cameras captured the tubular crustaceans latched onto the fish’s back. Though the parasites’ presence might trigger your gag reflex, they’re actually a sign that the underwater ecosystem is functioning just the way it should. “Diverse, functioning, healthy ecosystems actually have a higher diversity and abundance of parasites,” said Lauren Dykman, a benthic ecologist, in an earlier Woods Hole article on the creatures. The expedition spotted the parasite-ridden fish by chance, as part of a mission focused on cataloguing biod ... Read full article.