Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Rare albino ratfish caught in Washington

A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Whidbey Island in Washington state is the only completely albino fish ever seen by both the curator of the University of Washington's 7.2 million-specimen fish collection and a fish and wildlife biologist with more than 20 years of sampling fish in Puget Sound. This fish was almost pure white with a crystalline layer near the surface of its skin that gave it a silvery sheen. The foot-long female may have been 2 or 3 years old, making her a teenager in the ratfish world. She was caught this summer in about 200 feet of water during a UW research project examining the food web in Hood Canal and Puget Sound. (via)

No comments: