Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) \u2013 Iraqi security and environmental teams have discovered a fascinating underground water system deep under the dry Anbar desert, where rare eyeless fish thrive in total darkness.<\/p>\n
The location is in the Al-Khasfa region near Haditha, and crews traveled through a remote desert cave and sinkhole system to access running groundwater hundreds of meters under the surface.<\/p>\n
The expedition\u2019s footage shows little, pale fish moving in the subterranean water in the lack of sunshine. <\/p>\n
The fish have evolved to live in darkness by losing their eyes and pigmentation, giving them a characteristic white-to-pink look.<\/p>\n
The crew traveled more than 500 meters into the cave system despite challenging terrain and low oxygen levels.<\/p>\n
The difference between above- and underground has piqued interest: underneath what seems to be an isolated and very arid stretch of western Iraqi desert, there is flowing freshwater and a specialized ecology.<\/p>\n
Initial investigations have also suggested a link between the subterranean water system and the Euphrates basin, with the watercourse possibly running for a long distance under the desert.<\/p>\n
However, environmental experts have highlighted that the blind fish themselves are not a novel finding.<\/p>\n
Qais Najeh, the chairman of the Anbar Environment Directorate, stated that experts first confirmed the occurrence of eyeless fish in Al-Khasfa in 2010. <\/p>\n
Similar fish have also been discovered in subterranean water near the Sheik Hadid mausoleum in Haditha district.<\/p>\n
According to experts, the fish may grow to be roughly 49 millimeters long and survive in rather steady groundwater temperatures ranging from 20 to 22 degrees Celsius. <\/p>\n
Their lack of vision and pigmentation are adaptations to generations of living in perpetually dark subterranean habitats.<\/p>\n
The recent mission is nonetheless noteworthy because it has refocused attention on one of Iraq\u2019s least-known natural ecosystems, perhaps allowing scientists to better research the subterranean water network, its geology, and the creatures that rely on it.<\/p>\n
The fish\u2019s severely limited environment renders it vulnerable. <\/p>\n
Changes in groundwater levels, pollution, or human intervention might endanger a population that has acclimated to highly particular subsurface circumstances.<\/p>\n
The Al-Khasfa location offers a unique dimension to Anbar, a region best known for its wide western desert and the Euphrates.<\/p>\n
Hidden under that terrain lies an environment few Iraqis have ever seen: flowing subterranean water that feeds fish who have evolved to survive their entire lives without sunshine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) \u2013 Iraqi security and environmental teams have discovered a fascinating underground water system deep under the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[15369,94],"class_list":["post-247953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-anbar","tag-iraq"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117089573075769314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}