
A deep-sea fisherman in Russia has been posting his finds on Twitter - Jerry2
http://www.businessinsider.com/a-deep-sea-fisherman-in-russia-has-been-posting-his-finds-on-twitter-2016-12
======
adrianN
Trawling the deep ocean ought to be banned. These ecosystems regenerate
extremely slowly because they're so poor in nutrients and sunlight.

~~~
whyenot
When it comes to many ocean fisheries, we are literally scraping the bottom of
the barrel, unfortunately.

Take for example slimeheads (marketed as "orange roughy" in the USA). These
fish live deep in the ocean, can take _decades_ to reach reproductive maturity
and a marketable size, and can live up to 149 years. Harvested by bottom
trawling, their commercial exploitation causes tremendous damage to the
seafloor. Just some food for thought the next time you sit down in a
restaurant and dine on a fish that is likely older than your parents.

~~~
antisthenes
They aren't even good fish to eat.

High in mercury, low in omega-3 acids. And being from the twilight zone,
something tells me it will taste like all the other scavenger-type fish and
sea creatures.

Only reason to eat one over a farmed salmon would be for the novelty factor.

------
rsiqueira
The top scariest are:

1\. The Chimera:
[https://twitter.com/rfedortsov/status/808018055905349637](https://twitter.com/rfedortsov/status/808018055905349637)

and

2\. The Cyclops:
[https://twitter.com/rfedortsov/status/811778971075547136](https://twitter.com/rfedortsov/status/811778971075547136)

~~~
theparanoid
They make the alien in Alien look practically warm and fuzzy.

~~~
jghn
Some are close enough that they're believed to have inspired the xenomorphs
directly

[http://www.livescience.com/43076-meet-phronima-the-barrel-
ri...](http://www.livescience.com/43076-meet-phronima-the-barrel-riding-
parasite-that-inspired-the-movie-alien.html)

~~~
cgh
I think this is a myth that gets propogated online without any citations.
Giger's "Necronom IV" painting from 1976[0] was the inspiration of the
xenomorph in "Alien". Is there any evidence this painting was in turn inspired
by deep undersea creatures?

[0]
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/H.R._Giger_-_...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/db/H.R._Giger_-
_Necronom_IV.jpg)

~~~
jghn
I believe the article I linked mentioned the thought being that it was the
queen from Aliens, not the original xenomorph. I also wouldn't be surprised to
find it to be untrue altogether, thus the "believed to be" phrasing.

------
fauria
Imgur gallery:
[http://imgur.com/gallery/CWOr8](http://imgur.com/gallery/CWOr8)

Many of them are abyssal species, I wonder how deep are they trawling.

------
zilian
It is fascinating, yet sad to see so many endangered species if you go on his
instagram feed. For instance the Ocean sunfish:
[https://youtu.be/ddUJT0i9sCM?t=59](https://youtu.be/ddUJT0i9sCM?t=59)

------
acqq
Wow:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoplight_loosejaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoplight_loosejaw)

"Malacosteus and the related genera ... are the only fishes that _produce red
bioluminescence._ As most of their prey organisms are not capable of
perceiving light at those wavelengths, this allows Malacosteus to _hunt with
an essentially invisible beam of light._ Furthermore, Malacosteus is unique
amongst animals in using a chlorophyll derivative to perceive red light."

------
spodek
HN mostly puts down reddit, but:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/deepseacreatures/](https://www.reddit.com/r/deepseacreatures/)

~~~
nkrisc
That sub has posts of "dead dragons" and "mermaids"...

My eyes are rolling so hard right now.

------
paulmd
Business Insider has been posting an awful lot of clickbait lately.

~~~
qwrusz
By lately do you mean 7 years? Clickbait has been their entire business model
from pretty much day 1.

To their credit, BI's clickbait headline writing skills are stronger and their
thesaurus of adverbs thicker than many competitor sites.

Plus you'll never guess this one _amazing_ thing BI does that skyrocketed them
to among the best in the industry at headlines...

------
whowalrus
Extremely fascinating. Seeing the alien-ness of the creatures, I wonder if any
fiction writers have written well-researched stories set in this portion of
the ocean? Seems like it would make for a fascinating setting.

~~~
Lio
What always blows my mind is that these most alien looking creatures are not
alien at all. We share DNA with them and are evolved for the same planet.

Which begs the question, what would actual aliens look like?

Would parallel evolution produce familiar looking creatures or something much
much stranger? I imagine it's something that sci-fi authors spend a bit of
time thinking about.

~~~
ecdavis
There's a great book about this called "Life Beyond Earth" by Gerald Feinberg
and Robert Shapiro. It discusses possibilities ranging from silicon-based life
to plasma-based and even radiation-based life. It's not speculative, but since
it's rather old the science in it may be dated.

It's worth reading if you're interested in this topic.

------
anc84
I would be scared about toxicity, is that not a possible problem?

~~~
woliveirajr
Given that he's holding with bare hands... I would never do that. Just one
specime with poison or something line that, and you're done.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
A fisherman's hands are almost as good as gloves. Not much going to get
through that hide.

------
tannhaeuser
spiegel.de had a biologist classify these creatures (in German, [1]); Google's
translation ([2]) probably won't make sense, though.

[1]: [http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/russland-fischer-
fa...](http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/russland-fischer-faengt-immer-
wieder-gruselige-kreaturen-a-1126992.html)

[2]:
[https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=h...](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=de&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Fwissenschaft%2Fnatur%2Frussland-
fischer-faengt-immer-wieder-gruselige-kreaturen-a-1126992.html)

------
kasperset
Reminds me of second episode of this documentary (2001):
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Planet)

------
s_kilk
I hate the sea, and everything in it.

~~~
GrinningFool
Take comfort in knowing that it hates you, too.

And know that it's waiting for you. It's very good at waiting.

