{"id":518029,"date":"2026-01-15T13:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518029\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T13:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T13:45:11","slug":"california-diver-documents-close-encounter-with-deep-sea-fish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518029\/","title":{"rendered":"California diver documents close encounter with deep-sea fish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It looked like the silvery blade of a knife. <\/p>\n

Peering through his goggles, diver Ted Judah had laid eyes on a deep-sea creature rarely encountered by humans. He and wife Linda were diving off McAbee Beach in Monterey County in late December when, near the surface, he spotted the \u201cundulating thing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was some kind of ribbon fish,\u201d he wrote in a post on the Facebook group<\/a> Monterey County Dive Reports. <\/p>\n

Kevin Lewand<\/a> solved the mystery. The Monterey Bay Aquarium marine biologist was among those chiming in with their assessments on the group, which is popular among local divers. He said he\u2019d shared the image with an ichthyologist who had identified it as a juvenile king-of-the-salmon, scientifically known as Trachipterus altivelis, which is part of the ribbonfish family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to stay with it, but I felt like I was harassing it,\u201d Judah wrote of his encounter. He posted snapshots of the tiny creature. \u201cIt had this keen ability to orient itself so that its narrowest profile was always facing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The king-of-the-salmon got its name from the Makah, Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast who believed the species led salmon back to their spawning grounds, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.<\/p>\n

Bruce Robison<\/a>, a senior scientist at MBARI, said this was a rare occurrence as this type of fish is typically found at depths that are hundreds of feet lower.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey live in a place that, for the most part, is inaccessible, except for people who have submersibles or remotely operated vehicles,\u201d Robison said in a phone call.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

Ted Judah came across a rare king-of-the-salmon ribbonfish while diving in Monterey on Dec. 30, 2025.<\/p>\n

(Ted Judah)<\/p>\n

In nearly four decades of ocean exploration, MBARI has logged 16 sightings of king-of-the-salmon, and six sightings of closely related ribbonfish. The most recent was in 2021, according to the institute.<\/p>\n

In terms of beauty, \u201c\u200ait\u2019s hard to beat the king-of-the-salmon,\u201d said Robison, adding that part of its allure comes from its enormous lacy red fins and silver sides. <\/p>\n

One reason for the rare sighting could be the fish\u2019s feeding time. At nighttime, various ocean animals migrate to the surface to avoid predators. Robison suspects that this majestic creature might have stayed there after feeding on small crustaceans and larval fish.<\/p>\n

Another reason could be climate change<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u200aThese are regarded as warm-water fishes. The fact that the ocean, including Monterey Bay, is getting warmer may indicate that the geographical range of these animals is expanding,\u201d Robison said.<\/p>\n

\u200aWarm water holds less oxygen than cold water does, and as the ocean gets warmer, it can drive animals toward another region. According to Robison, fish, crustaceans, squid and other warm-water species are moving into what used to be considered cooler waters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could be\u201d climate change, Robison said of this latest king-of-the-salmon sighting. \u201cWe haven\u2019t nailed it down yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looked like the silvery blade of a knife. Peering through his goggles, diver Ted Judah had laid…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518030,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[4749,230920,1582,276,230924,230921,8768,230925,20149,230922,2961,224,5337,119411,21000,5996,47109,2417,230923,62066],"class_list":{"0":"post-518029","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-animal","9":"tag-bruce-robison","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-california-diver-document","13":"tag-deep-sea-fish","14":"tag-encounter","15":"tag-feeding-time","16":"tag-indigenous-people","17":"tag-juvenile-king-of-the-salmon","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-mbari","22":"tag-ocean-exploration","23":"tag-part","24":"tag-reason","25":"tag-sighting","26":"tag-small-crustacean","27":"tag-surface"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115899421608932440","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}