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Fierce Fish

May 14, 2016

In the early years of using moored instruments to gather information about the ocean, many moorings sustained damage that some researchers attributed to bites from fish. Not everyone was convinced, so find out what might be making the cuts and gashes, WHOI engineers and scientists deployed test moorings. One mooring suffered more than 1,000 slashes during just 40 days in the water. Recovery of tooth fragments from the mooring revealed that one culprit was the lancet fish (Alepisaurus ferox), the skull of which is shown here. The finding convinced skeptics that fish bite was a real threat to oceanographic instruments and lines. (Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Archives)