#I may make a post on the lost media subreddit to spark interest in this because whew

[sparrowlucero]

thebermudian(.)com(/)history(/)history(-)history(/)bathysphere(-)barton(-)bermuda 'As the new descent stirred memories of the bathysphere dives of 50 years ago, Mr Barton reminisced: “The fish I remember best is the bathyspira intacta, which means the ‘untouchable bathysphere fish’. Dr Beebe saw it at about 2,000 feet under the sea in beautiful clear weather, but I only saw a quick flash of something going by. “He saw it about a quarter of minute before he finished making the first-ever broadcast from the depths. It appeared very conveniently, just when he needed a big climax. It has never been seen before or since.”' otis in the 80s weighs in :')

he does sound fondly snarky about it here, lol. I have to say, again, I totally would have done this if I was a respected marine biologist at the bottom of the ocean on live radio and no one else had ever been there before. no shame.

this is also really good to know because beebe's book is very unclear as to if the fish was seen just before or just after - he timestamps some of the encounters but not others, and the giant dragonfish appear without one (the broadcast ends at 3:30, he says he gave the order to go lower at 3:23 and some unknown minutes after gives the order to ascend, where he sees the dragonfish).

sadly he transcribes a few of his dives with these extremely specific timestamps and doesn't include the radio broadcast one (though maybe the transcript exists somewhere in another one of his many books?):

Also worth noting he does mention a different scary and unidentified fish that also would have been at the very end of the broadcast, one which he never scientifically names:

While we hung in mid-ocean at our lowest level, of 2200 feet, a fish poised just to the left of my window, its elongate outline distinct and its dark sides lighted from sources quite concealed from me. It was an effective example of indirect lighting, with the glare of the photophores turned inward. I saw it very clearly and knew it as something wholly different from any deep-sea fish which had yet been captured by man. It turned slowly head-on toward me, and every ray of illumination vanished, together with its outline and itself—it simply was not, yet I knew it had not swum away.

I can't discount that this was the climactic fish in question rather than the dragonfish and barton may have gotten scary ass nightmare fish #347 and scary ass nightmare fish #348 mixed up over the course of 50 years. someone please track down this broadcast, the people need to know!