He may not be from the Outback, but this weird little critter had to get a mention!
The blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is a deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. Inhabiting the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania, it is rarely seen by humans.
Blobfish live at depths where the pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level, which would likely make gas bladders inefficient for maintaining buoyancy. Instead, the flesh of the blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front of it.
Blobfish can be caught by bottom trawling with nets as bycatch. Such trawling in the waters off Australia may threaten the blobfish in what may be its only habitat.
The Blobfish is currently facing extinction due to deep-sea fishing.
How do you get Australians to care about the Blobfish?
For us it was all about finding the right motivation.
Given the Blobfish is such an unattractive, lazy,
miserable looking beast, it’s pointless asking
Australians to care about the problem.
But you can make it their problem. Get right up in
their faces in all our fugliness and promise to
leave them alone if they make one simple gesture.
So we didn’t do a TV ad, we did an appeal...
or in this case, an unappeal. We started with a petition
to limit bottom trawling, gave it a Blobfish twist,
and took it to the streets.
