Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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On this same dive we next came across a rather less offensive looking angler fish lying motionless on the bottom in a sandy clearing between several large boulders, which were covered in the waving fronds of a kelp forest. This is a flat fish, somewhat similar to a Monkfish but smaller proportioned and not quite so evil looking.

My dive buddy on this dive decided to see what this fish could do - as it wasn’t for moving for us either. He pulled out his nine-inch long pencil torch, used for looking into nooks and crannies, and approached the fish menacingly…. but obviously not menacingly enough to frighten this poor creature - it just stared at him. Emboldened he got right up close to it and gave it a prod on its snout with his torch. It didn’t move - probably hoping we would give up and go away.

Undeterred, my buddy gave the inoffensive and somewhat tolerant angler fish a harder prod on its nose. He had obviously overstepped some unwritten law and gone one prod too far. With blinding speed, the anglerfish’s inoffensive semi-circular mouth suddenly transformed into a large oval hole and like lighting, it flicked off the bottom and attacked the offending torch.