Oil Spill Threatens Funky Flat Fish: Big Pic
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June 17, 2010 -- The Louisiana pancake batfish may not be the cuddliest creature you've ever laid your eyes on. But it is one of the many different animals currently under threat from the Deepwater Horizon spill as oil creeps into its habitat.
Prosanta Chakrabarty, an ichthyologist at Louisiana State University, discovered the species only last year in museum collections and has since caught several specimens. The pancake batfish has a flat, oval-shaped body, and fins toward the rear of its body which it uses to hop -- rather than swim -- along the sea floor.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently acknowledged the existence of massive underwater plumes of oil that could only have come from the spill at the Deepwater Horizon site. The plumes were discovered more than 40 nautical miles from the disaster site and at a depth of 3,300 feet.
Deep-water species, such as the pancake batfish, which lives around 1,500 feet below the surface, are particularly vulnerable to encroaching oil.
Scientists cannot say just how many species like the pancake batfish are at risk because so many deep-water animals remain unknown to science. In other words, because the oil spill may reach these animals' habitats long before scientists do, such creatures could disappear and be forever beyond our reach.
Sources: Science Insider, CNN
Image credit: Prosanta Chakrabarty
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