Vibrant new 'starburst' fish discovered deep in the Caribbean Sea

Updated
New 'Starburst' Fish Discovered Deep In the Caribbean
New 'Starburst' Fish Discovered Deep In the Caribbean

A stunning new fish was just discovered in the Caribbean, and it looks like something straight out of a Pixar movie!

The colorful fish, discovered near the island of Curacao, was spotted during a reef exploration that was a part of a Smithsonian Institution mission called the Deep Reef Observation Project, or DROP.

The area doesn't typically see a lot of analysis, as the waters are too deep for conventional scuba research and too shallow for submarines to explore.

"The 50- to 300-meter [160 to 980 feet] tropical ocean zone is poorly studied — too deep for conventional scuba and too shallow to be of much interest to really deep-diving submersibles," Carole Baldwin, the lead scientist at DROP, said in a statement. "The Curasub is providing scientists with the technology needed to remedy this gap in our knowledge of Caribbean reef biodiversity."

Scientists have dubbed the newly found fish "stellate scorpionfish." However, it's scientific name is "Scorpaenodes barrybrowni" in honor of Barry Brown, a nature photographer who worked on the mission -- life goal achieved.

All we can say is thank goodness the team made the trek down there because look how gorgeous it is!


Image: Barry Brown

Researchers remain optimistic that more and more discoveries as fascinating as this one remain just around the corner.

"Stay tuned for more new discoveries," said Baldwin. "We have only scratched the surface of our understanding of the biodiversity of tropical deep reefs."

We're certainly looking forward to it!

Check out some more rare fish found in the ocean:

Advertisement