‘The bravest thing I’ve ever seen’: A lone anglerfish has the internet in tears

A lone anglerfish has captured the internet’s heart. 

Usually found 6,500 feet under the sea, this black seadevil was filmed by marine researchers in Tenerife swimming towards the water’s surface on January 26. The shark conservation NGO Condrik Tenerife called the black, razor-toothed creature “a legendary fish that few will ever have the privilege of observing alive,” when sharing their footage on Instagram.

Tragically, the fish died just hours after being spotted, making its final swim all the more poetic. This scientific discovery has since spread across social media and sparked an emotional outpouring for this six-inch fish. 

“I just found out about the angler fish and I’m sobbing,” one TikTok creator posted.

“Close your eyes and just imagine for one minute… just ONE minute and be her. The feeling she had seeing a light other than her own and then leaving this world,” another TikTok post reads, before speculating as to why the fish was so far from home. “Was she sick? Scared? A bet? Or was she just lonely like most of us and had nothing to lose. Grief?” the post continues. “The bravest thing I’ve ever seen!”

There are a number of more realistic but less romantic theories for why the black seadevil was so close to the surface. Researchers speculate that a predator may have swallowed the fish and later regurgitated it at a shallower depth, or that it was caught in an upward-moving column of warm water

Either way, the internet has taken the fish’s story and ran with it. One TikTok user even used AI to create a Finding Nemo–style animation about the fish’s final swim that has since gained 44.1 million views. “That was someone’s baby,” one commenter wrote beneath the video. “One little fish that touched the hearts of thousands,” commented another. A third added: “I wonder if she knows how much she is loved up here.”

Someone get Pixar on the phone.

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