Bizarre Sea Creature With See-Through Head Captured In Rare Footage [Video]

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, or MBARI, on Thursday released a new video of a bizarre sea creature with a transparent head. The fish, identified as barreleye fish (Macropinna microstoma) is a rare sight.

A remote-operated vehicle captured the footage during an expedition of the research vessel Rachel Carson in Monterey Bay off the coast of California last week. Aquarist Tommy Knowles and his team were aboard MBARI’s R/V Rachel Carsonto to collect jellies and comb jellies for the Aquarium’s upcoming "Into the Deep" exhibition when they spotted the creature, as per a report by CNET.

The video showed the creature's see-through head and the glowing green eyes inside.

"MBARI's remotely operated vehicles Ventana and Doc Ricketts have logged more than 5,600 dives and recorded more than 27,600 hours of video, yet we've only encountered this fish nine times," the organization said.

According to MBARI, the barreleye lives in the ocean’s twilight zone, at a depth of between 2,000 to 2,600 feet. The creature's eyes look upwards to spot its prey—usually small crustaceans trapped in the tentacles of siphonophores. The two little indentations on its face are actually olfactory organs, essentially nostrils.

MBARI researchers have found that the barreleye can rotate its eyes beneath the dome of transparent tissue.

Last month, a massive rare sea creature was caught on camera during an expedition conducted by a team of researchers in the Gulf of Mexico. The rare creature was identified as a bigfin squid which, as the name suggests, is charcterized by large fins and has eight arms along with a pair of tentacles.

The creature was spotted during the "Windows to the Deep 2021: Southeast ROV and Mapping" expedition conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The team was scouring through the unchartered deepwater areas in the western Atlantic Ocean, off the southeastern United States, when they found it nearly 7,820 feet beneath the ocean surface.

The team spotted the creature drifting past the ROV (remotely operated vehicle) when they were near the West Florida Escarpment. Previous sightings of these creatures – only 20 so far – were as deep as 15,534 feet below the ocean surface, NOAA's official website said.