{"id":211737,"date":"2025-10-14T06:56:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211737\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T06:56:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:56:11","slug":"rarely-seen-ghostly-faceless-eel-spotted-lurking-on-seafloor-in-cook-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/211737\/","title":{"rendered":"Rarely Seen Ghostly “Faceless” Eel Spotted Lurking On Seafloor In Cook Islands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of all the ghostly creatures lurking in our oceans<\/a>, a recently spotted deep-sea cusk eel species cosplaying as a giant phantom tadpole might just be our new favorite.<\/p>\n

This bizarre creature was seen during E\/V Nautilus\u2019 latest expedition, which aims to explore the previously uncharted deep-sea areas of the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. It\u2019s not unusual for the teams aboard the ship to give enthusiastic commentary<\/a> on what they see with their remotely operated vehicles during their expeditions (it\u2019s one of our favorite things about them), but this fish really did deserve all the wows that they gave it.<\/p>\n

While exploring the seafloor, the team spotted something eerie swimming in the distance. As the camera moved closer, the weirdness only intensified as the polliwog-esque creature with no distinguishable facial features came into view. It eventually swam off, though the researchers later located another equally spooky specimen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But these were no massive amphibians-to-be; these were faceless cusk eels (Typhlonus nasus).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As the name implies, these strange fish have drastically reduced facial features, including what seems to be no eyes. However, as the old saying goes, appearances can be deceiving. \u201cWhile these deep-sea swimmers’ bulbous faces appear to lack eyes, juveniles have been found to have tiny eyes hidden deep beneath the skin,\u201d the Nautilus Live team explains in the caption of a video<\/a> capturing the encounter.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not entirely surprising that they\u2019ve got their eyes tucked away; faceless cusks can live as deep as 5,100 meters (16,730 feet) below the surface. That\u2019s within the layer of ocean known as the abyssal zone, and it\u2019s completely devoid of sunlight. There\u2019s not much point in having big ol\u2019 eyes when you spend your time in the dark, so evolution likely decided they were better off ditching them, something that\u2019s happened multiple times in darkness-dwelling eyeless cavefish<\/a> too.<\/p>\n

Their deep-sea home might also explain why, despite being relatively widely distributed, they\u2019re so rarely seen \u2013 hence the enthusiasm from the Nautilus\u00a0team. In fact, faceless cusks were effectively rediscovered in Australia back in 2017<\/a>, after not a single one had been recorded in waters off the country since 1873.<\/p>\n

When it landed on the deck of CSIRO\u2019s RV Investigator, researchers thought<\/a> they\u2019d found an entirely new species, until sifting through scientific publications revealed it to be T. nasus, and potentially the biggest one ever seen.<\/p>\n

Like the Nautilus\u00a0team, the Investigator\u00a0researchers were pretty enthusiastic about this freaky-looking fish \u2013 even if they did compare its featureless face to a butt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis little fish looks amazing because the mouth is actually situated at the bottom of the animal so, when you look side-on, you can\u2019t see any eyes, you can\u2019t see any nose or gills or mouth,\u201d expedition team leader Dr Tim O\u2019Hara told The Guardian<\/a> at the time. \u201cIt looks like two rear-ends on a fish, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

E\/V Nautilus\u2019 Cook Islands expedition is set to continue through to October 21, so fingers crossed they\u2019ve got plenty more wonderful deep-sea weirdos<\/a> to come.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Of all the ghostly creatures lurking in our oceans, a recently spotted deep-sea cusk eel species cosplaying as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-211737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}