A new species of anglerfish, Gigantactis paresca, discovered by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa oceanographers, was recently announced among the top 10 remarkable new marine species of 2024 by the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). This top-ten list highlights some of the estimated 2,000 fascinating new marine species discovered every year.
The anglerfish was initially collected during a UH Mānoa Department of Oceanography-led research cruise in 2021 to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a vast area of abyssal ocean southeast of Hawaiʻi. The scientific team aboard the cruise aimed to establish a baseline of the ecosystem and assess potential impacts of proposed deep sea mining.
“I hope this discovery emphasizes how much more there is to discover about the ocean and highlights the importance of protecting this region in which many species are still unknown to humans,” said Samantha Rickle, who published the discovery of the new species in 2024, and is a graduate student in Jeff Drazen’s Deep-Sea Fish Ecology Laboratory.
Anglerfish are named for their unique approach to predation, in which they use a bioluminescent bait at the tip of their lure that extends over their head. The newly discovered anglerfish is distinct from its relatives in that it contains a non-light-bearing secondary bait, in addition to the primary bait. Rickle shared that this unique lure morphology has never been recorded in any other type of angler, giving rise to the species name paresca, meaning pair of bait in Latin.
Making the discovery
In 2022, Rickle started working as an undergraduate researcher in the Drazen lab where her job was to identify the fish brought back from the 2021 research cruises.
“The first time I examined this fish, it was very clearly something not previously seen in taxonomic literature,” said Rickle. “I remember getting Jeff from his office and looking at it under the microscope and we agreed the lure, in particular, was incredibly unique from any other Gigantactinid. We were both extremely excited to be looking at something completely new to science.”
See the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology website for the entire story.
—By Marcie Grabowski
