Longnose Lancetfish Ate PLASTIC

A longnose lancetfish washed up on Mad River Beach in Humboldt County, California on Nov 19, 2008. It had a plastic bottle taking up a lot of space in its stomach. It also contained a candy wrapper, a squid beak, a small cod or tomcod, a topminnow I think, a piece of kelp, and a bunch of what looked like parasitic nematode worms. This is the third lancetfish I've found on this beach in about 8 years. This was the most complete one, and it was still very colorful as you can see. Seems like it would be difficult to get enough to eat with a shampoo bottle filling your stomach...

These fish are found from the surface to 2000 meters deep according to CA Dept of Fish and Game. They obviously eat a variety of things. The skull is very light weight -- almost paper thin bones. The longest teeth grow from the roof of its mouth. The gill rakers are also very sharp. Species name is Alepisaurus ferox.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Longnose
• lancetfish
• Alepisaurus
• ferox
• ocean
• plastics
• plastic
• debris
• marine
• Humboldt
• deep
• sea
• beach
• toothy
• fish
• large
• teeth
• parasites
• nematodes
• cod
• squid
• beak
• irridescent
• pacific
• garbage
• patch
• gyre

[killerbiller35]

interesting finding thanks for uploading

[HumboldtMike]

@killerbiller35 You bet! I haven't seen or heard of another in two years -- they seemed a little too common on the beach for a couple of years.

[LindseyHolm]

my dad and I were surfing at moonstone the other day and saw one of these guys washed up in the shallow water over near the cave. it was still sort of alive. we pushed it back out into the ocean. some dude on the beach took a picture of it first. this one was almost 4 feet long. thought it was a Wahoo until i saw your video! the sail was too big for a wahoo and that glittering blue eye was something ELSE. crazy looking fish!

i wonder if something is up besides eating bottles 1 fish 2 fish...

[HumboldtMike]

Very interesting... I just got an email from a friend who found one the other day at the mouth of the Mad River -- still alive too. I wonder what's going on. Thanks for telling me.

[heavyboxes]

Amazing creature. But a sad ending.

Cool video. More creatures please.

[HumboldtMike]

Thanks -- I'll try to honor your request...

[HumboldtMike]

There was an expedition to the "Continent-sized Plastic Garbage Patch" floating out there recently. You can find out about it if you Google "pacific ocean plastic" -- pretty awful stuff...

[milvipes]

I wonder how much plastic junks are drifting out there in the Pacific.

[HumboldtMike]

Yeah, this is a cool fish -- amazing how light and fragile their skulls are for having such big teeth. I've found two other partial ones on Mad River Beach and one down by Petrolia, and another guy told me he found a barely alive one just inside the Mad River mouth. Their skulls are really easy to prep as a specimen -- like the one at the end of the video. So if you find another one keep the head -- let me know and I'll tell you how to prep it. Later.

[miodios]

Hey Mike. I saw one of those out there too. Just south of the parking lot at Mad River beach. Crazy teeth and fins.