#beebes abyssal fishes

[shadyufo]

Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 26 — Beebe's Abyssal Fishes

In the early 1930s, marine biologist William Beebe and engineer Otis Barton designed and built the bathysphere. Beebe would go on to use this spherical submersible for 35 trips to explore and document what had previously been unreachable depths of the sea and observe its residents in their natural habitat for the first time. He made these dives off the coast of Bermuda and would reach depths of over 3000 feet.

During these trips, Beebe observed and described a few fish which have not been seen since. These fish were:

The Pallid Sailfin — torpedo-shaped fish approx. 2 ft long with a diminutive tail and large fins. Beebe said this fish was a sickly pale color.

The Abyssal Rainbow Gar — small gar-like fish with bright crimson heads, deep blue bellies, and yellow tails. Only four inches long. Beebe witnessed a school of four of these fish swimming vertically.

Five-Lined Constellation Fish — a round fish with five rows of bright yellow bioluminescent markings surrounded by smaller purple markings.

Bathysphaera or the Giant Dragonfish — a 6 ft long dragonfish with a row of bright bioluminescent markings down its sides. It had two long tendrils with glowing bioluminescent orbs on the ends.

Three-Starred Anglerfish — an anglerfish with three tendrils ending in bioluminescent lures sprouting from its head.

[sparrowlucero]

So what do we think Beebe's fish were then? I heard tell that the sailfin might have been a squid and that the angelfish was probably a comb jelly, but what about the giant dragonfish or the rainbow gar?

For those not in the know, in the 1930s, biologist William Beebe (who you (read: I) might know as the guy who predicted microraptor) and engineer Otis Barton (hollywood actor?? and designer of fucked up submarines and "jungle spaceships", ok otis) got into a fucked up submarine and went to the bottom of the ocean off the coast of bermuda (in what, iirc, was the first study of deep sea fish in their natural habitat), where he described several fish unknown to science. None of these fish have been identified since. (Side Note: to continue off of "audubon was unfamiliar with the bald eagle" in my last post, this one also has a theory I find a bit silly in "perhaps they just hallucinated fake fish from oxygen deprivation" despite both witnessing the same fish and a lot of his scary book about the dive that you can read here including many lucid observations of known species. It wasn't like he got down there and only saw weird fish and nothing else) The fish in order: Three-starred anglerfish, Abyssal Rainbow Gar, Pallid sailfin, Five-lined Constellation Fish

and yeah I do see why people think these might have been invertebrates mistakenly identified as fish. In his book, Beebe holds off on describing unfamiliar fish if he didn't see them well, but, you know, those little gars really do look like squid. I personally think the most likely one to be a real fish is the angler, since he saw it closely and was able to note several physiological differences in jaw structure that distinguished it from other angler fish.

The most notable one is the "Untouchable Bathysphere Fish", a giant 6 foot long dragonfish (largest known dragonfish is about 2 feet long):

Several minutes later, at 2100 feet, I had the most exciting experience of the whole dive. Two fish went very slowly by, not more than six or eight feet away, each of which was at least six feet in length. They were of the general shape of large barracudas, but with shorter jaws which were kept wide open all the time I watched them. A single line of strong lights, pale bluish, was strung down the body. The usual second line was quite absent. The eyes were very large, even for the great length of the fish. The undershot jaw was armed with numerous fangs which were illumined either by mucus or indirect internal lights. Vertical fins well back were one of the characters which placed it among the sea-dragons, Melanostomiatids, and were clearly seen when the fish passed through the beam. There were two long tentacles, hanging down from the body, each tipped with a pair of separate, luminous bodies, the upper reddish, the lower one blue. These twitched and jerked along beneath the fish, one undoubtedly arising from the chin, and the other far back near the tail. I could see neither the stem of the tentacles nor any paired fins, although both were certainly present. This is the fish I subsequently named Bathysphera intacta, the Untouchable Bathysphere Fish.

I believe this solely because it's really cool Though I want posit a theory I've never heard before: it's almost never remarked upon that he discovered these weird fish over a live (now lost media that no one is searching for, get on that) NBC radio broadcast. Maybe he just made up some cool sea monsters with a big climactic sea serpent for said broadcast, both because I would totally do that if it were me and also so he had a good excuse to sign off and get the fuck out of this situation:

[daily-cryptids]

Abyssal Rainbow Gar

Origin: North Atlantic Ocean The Abyssal Rainbow Gar is 4 inches long blue body, scarlet head, a yellow tail and a long beak similar to a gar fish. The Abyssal Rainbow Gar has only been reported once in the early 1930's in a dive dive off Bermuda at a depth of 2500 feet by William Beebe.

[the-briny-bulletin]

(warning: long rambling about the bathysphere and cryptid fish ahead)

Map of Bermuda showing the areas of the Bathysphere dives as shown in William Beebe's 1934 book "Half a Mile Down". you can find the PDF of the book for free here. I've only read a few pages (20 i think) as of yet but what I've read so far is really interesting!

William Beebe was one of the two men aboard the Bathysphere, an unpowered deep sea submersible used between 1930-34 (we will get to that later). He was a naturalist mainly known for ornithology but was also an early pioneer of deep sea exploration. During the late 20s he started formulating a way to explore the deep sea, something that was unimaginable as even military submarines with no windows could only go about 117 Metres (383 ft) deep at the time. He was also pretty progressive as he often hired women to do scientific work (pretty scandalous for the 1930s).

The other man, Otis Barton, was an engineer who actually designed the Bathysphere itself! William Beebe was originally planning on using a cylindrical shape for the submersible, which he then published to the New York Times. Otis saw this and sent William a few letters explaining that this was a shit ass design and how a spherical shape would be better. (William ignored this because he was getting a lot of letters from folks asking to join his efforts. but eventually a mutual friend introduced them). He then went on to design the Benthoscope, another deep sea submersible, and write his own book "The World Beneath the Sea" which I have also yet to read (mainly bc i cant find a free PDF).

Now, the Bathysphere itself:

I would try to describe how it functions but unfortunately i am not smart enough to do so, and i feel too weirdly guilty to copy and pasting from Wikipedia. If you are an engineer nerd, please feel free to nerd about the design in the reblogs! But what I do understand is that this fucking thing was STUPIDLY DANGEROUS.

It is a literal ball of steel that they lowered into the ocean using a cable connected to a boat. a hollow one, sure. But when they first cast this thing it was too heavy to be lifted so they had to recast it. even in its lighter form, it was clunky and difficult. When it was submerged it would violently swing like a pendulum which would cause Barton and Beebe to hit their heads on the steel walls. they would often leave the Bathysphere bruised and bleeding. Once, Otis Barton threw up due to sea sickness while in it and they just shrugged and kept descending anyway.

Also, due to the high amount of pressure exerted on the sphere (deepest dive being 923 metres/3,028 ft which would be around 90 ish atmospheres which is 90 times more than on the surface(i think idk maths someone fact check me)) they probably most very likely would have experienced some form of nitrogen narcosis, which is basically when some people who reach below a certain depth in the sea start to experience temporary mental impairments kinda like if you were on anesthesia. That, as well as the fact that - despite their best efforts - the air circulation in the sphere was bad, meaning there was probably a high amount of Co2 in the air.

This ^ may be an explanation for the 5 cryptids described by Barton and Beebe during the "Untouchable Bathysphere" Incident and I'm vaguely aware these things probably have been spoken about before on this site (probably with better dictation and analysis) but i wish to speak about them again because they HAUNT ME I think about them OFTEN and I wanna TALK ABOUT IT!!

Fish themselves as Illustrated by Else Bostalmann:

The Five-Lined Constellation Fish

(Bathysidus pentagrammus)

The Pallid Sailfin

(Bathyembryx istiophasma)

The Giant Dragonfish

(Bathysphaera intacta)

The Abyssal Rainbow Gar

(No scientific name given lmao)

The Three-Starred Anglerfish

(Bathyceratias trilynchus)

I really suggest reading up about the untouchable bathysphere incident because there's something so haunting about how they describe these fish that have never been seen since. Imagine being the first person in the world to see such sights, only to be the last. An elusive ghost story.

There's a bunch of theories about what these fish are, if they are real and if so are still alive. The general consensus I've seen is that "they definitely saw something but their perception of reality was fucked up" and I whole heartedly agree.

For example: this "Five-lined constellation fish" has very similar patterns to a comb jelly

And the pallid sailfin's large dorsal and anal fins look an awful lot like cephalopod fins (?)

And when I was rambling about this with someone, they point out that the lures of the three-starred angler fish could potentially be caused by double vision and like

Yeah

Another post on tumblr I saw a while ago (which i cannot find please lmk if you know what I'm talking about) talked about how its very difficult to tell the size of things underwater if you don't have another object for a frame of reference, and also that objects tends to seem bigger underwater (23% i think?). Considering the pitch blackness of the deep sea, its very likely that they could've miscalculated the size of the giant dragon fish.

I dont know how to end this. this has been in my drafts for months. if you wanna add something please feel free to do so!!

[david-watts]

4, 7, 27, and 29!

4. mythical creature you think/believe is real? I believe most mythological creatures and cryptids are based in reality, whether something is out there or there's a different explanation. specifically? the abyssal fish spotted by william beebe between 1930 and 1934. not so much mythical, but certainly the one(s) I believe most is (are?) real

7. what animal do you most look forward to seeing in the aquarium? a tie between the penguins and the rays... I haven't been to the aquarium in so long man I should go again

27. what's your favourite or go-to outfit? go-to is a black tshirt and black jeans with either a pair of docs or my vans. it's not very unique so I'll say my favourite is a REALLY ugly patterned shirt that I got at an op shop, like seriously the pattern on it is sure a work of art. and then of course black jeans because you cannot go wrong with black jeans, probably the same shoes as I normally wear, and if I ever get around to dyeing and adding the patches to it, the jacket I have planned out (I have everything I need I just haven't done anything lol)

29. preferred pasta noodle? ravioli doesn't count as a noodle pasta so fettuccine. there's a place where I live that does takeaway pasta and it's so good I always get fettuccine seafood marinara like I have since I was I think seven?

thanks for asking!!!

[gooompy]

fakemon based on a group of cryptids (Beebe’s abyssal fishes)!

bathystar is the pallid sailfin + the five-lined constellation fish, chromabyss is the three-starred anglerfish + the giant dragonfish

[cryptid-quest]

Cryptid of the Day: Abyssal Rainbow Gar

Description: In the early 1930s, naturalist William Beebe chronicled many unknown fish through his voyages onboard a bathysphere. Off the coast of Bermuda, he documented a fish that has yet to be found again, a colorful fish called the Abyssal Rainbow Gar. He saw the fish at a depth of 2,500 feet.

[rapidpunches]

[ironychan]

WEEK 74: THE FIVE-LINED ABYSSAL FISH

Greetings one and all. Do you like cryptids, aliens, and creepy folktales? Do you enjoy knitting? If you answered yes to both, then you are the target audience for the Crypt-A-Long, a way out-of-control project based on the Lattes and Llamas Geek-A-Long they post every year. Each Sunday I post a chart to be used with the patterns on their website, to add some mystery to your cozy winter project. Check out the site for instructions, suggestions, and scrumptious hand-dyed yarn.

Cryptids range from the unlikely to the merely uncommon, and here we have one of the latter. The deep sea is an incredibly unknown and hostile place, and pretty much every expedition to it brings us some new and horrible evolutionary abomination to haunt our nightmares. William Beebe's trips off Bermuda in the 1930s were no exception, and the Five-Lined here is only one of several species he described that have never been seen again. Maybe he was mistaken about what he saw, or maybe the fish has since become extinct... or maybe, like the Coelacanth, it's still out there, just doing its fishy thing in the cold depths.

[creepybits]

Giant dragonfish or Beebe’s abyssal fish

(Scientific name: Bathysphere intacta)

Only spotted once in 1932 while William Beebe was submerged in a Bathysphere off the coast of Bermuda. (The Bathysphere was a spherical container that could be lowered into the sea which was used to study deep sea in their natural habitat.) The giant dragonfish is described as being up to 6 feet in length while a normal dragonfish would only reach a length of 15 inches.

[shadyufo]

we got some colorful cryptid feesh now!!!

Featuring new Rainbow Fur-Bearing Trout, Coelacanths, and Beebe's Abyssal Rainbow Gar.

Still gotta paint a few Beebe's Five-Lined Constellation Fish then they'll be ready to go in my Etsy shop <3

painting a few more fur-bearing trout plaques. they'll be in my etsy shop soon <3

[the-unicorns-of-nienna]

[Image Description: greyscale artwork depicting the five species of fish described above. End image description.]

Cryptids & Creatures of Folklore Drawtober Day 26 — Beebe's Abyssal Fishes

In the early 1930s, marine biologist William Beebe and engineer Otis Barton designed and built the bathysphere. Beebe would go on to use this spherical submersible for 35 trips to explore and document what had previously been unreachable depths of the sea and observe its residents in their natural habitat for the first time. He made these dives off the coast of Bermuda and would reach depths of over 3000 feet.

During these trips, Beebe observed and described a few fish which have not been seen since. These fish were:

The Pallid Sailfin — torpedo-shaped fish approx. 2 ft long with a diminutive tail and large fins. Beebe said this fish was a sickly pale color.

The Abyssal Rainbow Gar — small gar-like fish with bright crimson heads, deep blue bellies, and yellow tails. Only four inches long. Beebe witnessed a school of four of these fish swimming vertically.

Five-Lined Constellation Fish — a round fish with five rows of bright yellow bioluminescent markings surrounded by smaller purple markings.

Bathysphaera or the Giant Dragonfish — a 6 ft long dragonfish with a row of bright bioluminescent markings down its sides. It had two long tendrils with glowing bioluminescent orbs on the ends.

Three-Starred Anglerfish — an anglerfish with three tendrils ending in bioluminescent lures sprouting from its head.