B is for Blobfish

I don't know any animal whose name describes them so perfectly.

It's a fish.

And it looks like a blob.


And it is really, really ugly.

Why so serious? Oh, right. You're endangered.

But you have to feel a little sorry for this miserable-looking creature who, unlike the axolotl, has no reason to smile. The blobfish, which has spent the majority of its time on earth minding its own business, floating at depths in the ocean deep enough that your own sea-level adapted head would implode, is facing extinction. Deep-sea fishing is the culprit behind this evolutionary disaster's impending doom.

The blobfish, which lives off the coast of south-eastern Australia at depths up to 800 meters (that's about half a mile), trolls around with crabs and lobsters, content with the fact that, being as ugly as it is, no one would want to eat it.

Well, that part is true. But a destructive fishing method, called trawling, indiscriminately pulls up blobfish and arthropods alike. While many species have the advantage of spreading their populations far and wide, that is not the case for this sad creature. Since the blobfish is isolated to this one tiny area of the world, it is unlikely that migration will aid their dwindling populations.