On January 26, 2025, scientists worldwide were shocked to learn that a black seadevil anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) had ventured from the ocean's dark depths to the surface near the San Juan beach off the coast of the Guía de Isora, Canary Islands. This marks the second time in history that this type of fish has ever been documented on camera.

"When I first saw the video, I honestly didn't believe what I was seeing," Kory Evans, a fish biologist at Rice University, told National Geographic. "I thought it was A.I."

Following the swim, the black seadevil anglerfish passed away from the extreme change in pressure and its previous injuries sustained during the journey. It is now housed at the Museum of Nature and Archaeology in Santa Cruz, Tenerife.

"It was like a dream come true," says David Jara Bogunyà, a marine wildlife photographer with the NGO Condrik Tenerife who helped capture the footage, told National Geographic. "When I was a kid, I had a book with some deep-sea creatures, and I loved the illustrations. They were crazy to me. The animals didn't look real."

Still, their story has since gone viral on all social media platforms, with people posting videos of the fish's journey and captioning it things like "This poor fish is just spending her literal last seconds trying to do something beautiful."

Read on to discover everything you need to know about the fish, including why it went to the surface in the first place!

The black seadevil anglerfish is a deep sea fish best known for its sharp teeth and "fishing pole," which serve as its light source in the ocean's dark depths. They mainly feed on crustaceans -- crabs, lobsters, shrimp, etc. -- and are believed to be "soft and squishy," according to Evans.

"They are ambush predators...They kind of sit there, bobbing around, so seeing this one doing something active is kind of shocking," he added. "Their whole deal is not moving."

Because of their hatred for moving, many scientists and civilians are wondering why the seadevil -- whose scientific name Melanocetus johnsonii translates to "black whale" -- traveled to the surface in the first place.

"A lot of things could be going on," Ben Frable, the senior collection manager of marine vertebrates at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in Southern California, told The New York Times. "The animal could have been in distress, or worked its way into shallow water accidentally, or was being pursued by a predator."

As of publication, scientists still don't know the real reason the fish chose to come to the surface from the deep sea, but maybe he just needed a break from producing their own light and being surrounded by never-ending darkness.

"The deep ocean habitat is the largest living space on Earth, and it's home to most of the animals that live on this planet. We are exceptions," Bruce Robison, a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, told National Geographic. "We know so little about what's down deep."

Robison was the first scientist to record a video of black seadevil anglerfish in 2014 -- which he did by sending a remote camera 1,900 feet deep in the ocean.

Despite it only being the second time the black seadevil anglerfish has been caught on camera, "They've been captured in nets going back to the 19th century," according to Robison.

"These animals have been known for a very long time."

The one discovered off the coast of the Spanish Canary Islands was a female and was about six inches tall, which is pretty common for the species since they are believed to have their female offspring be the bigger, bolder and more ferocious gender.

As of publication, details on how old she was remain unclear, but scientists are avidly working to learn more about her identity, life, and why she looks the way she looks.

"They live in a very different environment; they're going to look weird," Frable told The New York Times. But they are not gruesome or horrific."

"People don't see them as valuable to protect, as a panda bear."

There are believed to be around 200 different species of anglerfish, all of which live in the deep sea and are rarely seen near the surface.

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