Humpback anglerfish

What it is

This fish is a species of black seadevil with a soft, dark brown or black body. Females have short, round bodies and large heads with wide, vertical mouths. Their long, pointed teeth allow them to swallow prey bigger than themselves. A distinctive feature is the illicium, a modified dorsal fin spine that extends from the snout. At its tip sits the esca, a bulbous lure used to attract food. The skin under the dorsal fin has many small spines. Males are much smaller and lack this luring apparatus.

Where it lives

It lives in the mesopelagic and bathypelagic zones, typically between 200 and 1,500 metres deep. Most specimens are found above 1,000 metres. This species has the widest distribution in its genus, inhabiting temperate and tropical waters across all oceans. Records include the South China Sea, East China Sea, and the Ross Sea in Antarctica. A specimen near British Columbia extended its known range in the East Pacific. It thrives in environments with little to no light from the surface.

How it lives

These fish are ambush predators with a low metabolic rate. They wait for prey rather than chasing it, which helps them survive in food-scarce depths. Their stomachs expand easily, allowing them to eat meals heavier than their own body weight. The lure glows due to symbiotic bacteria called Enterovibrio escacola. This relationship is facultative, meaning both can survive apart. Females have small eyes, suggesting they do not rely on sight. Males have large eyes and nostrils to help locate mates in the dark.

Breeding and life cycle

Mating is challenging due to the solitary nature of these fish in vast deep waters. Males use sensitive sensory organs to detect female scents. Unlike some relatives, males are non-parasitic. They attach temporarily to the female using a special tooth structure to release sperm, then detach. Fertilization happens externally when the female releases eggs. Both sexes reach maturity independently. This temporary attachment differs from other anglerfish where males fuse permanently with the female.

Fish and people

Humans do not hunt this species for food. It appears occasionally as bycatch in deep-sea trawling nets. As commercial fishing moves deeper, this threat may grow. Scientists study it to understand deep-sea adaptation and reproduction. In 2014, researchers filmed one off California. In 2025, a living female was photographed near the surface off Tenerife, a rare daytime sighting. These events provide valuable visual data on its behaviour and appearance in life.

Status and threats

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists it as Least Concern. It faces no direct targeting by fisheries. However, deep-sea trawling poses a risk of accidental capture. The scarcity of recorded individuals likely reflects the difficulty of sampling deep, dispersed populations rather than a decline in numbers. Continued expansion of deep-sea resource extraction could increase pressure on this widely distributed but hard-to-study species.

Questions people ask about Humpback anglerfish

Good reading and sources

• Humpback anglerfish on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos
• Wikidata recordOpen data