OK, so they don’t surface in the middle of the night, crawl up the beach, climb trees and start snacking on coconut leaves. Instead scientists artificially fed one of the most common species of deep sea fish on plants, and in doing so they demonstrated that these fish have much wider tastes than previously thought. The implication is that fish may take advantage of terrestrial plants that have been blown or washed into the seas. Dr. Rachel Jeffreys of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research is asking “Because these fish are eating spinach could they then possibly feed on phytodetritus and so be affected by changes in phytoplankton communities as a result of climate change?”.
Researchers used a rig containing spinach as bait and a video camera was placed at a depth of 3000 metres. Soon afterwards 3 species of fish, grenadiers (Coryphaenoides armatus and C. mediterraneus) and cusk eels (Spectunculus sp) were seen eating the spinach.
You can read more and see a video of the fish feeding on the Earth News section of the BBC’s website.
