COASTAL FISH 



147 



Also off Natal we obtained five specimens of a remarkable eel, Colo- 

 conger, not previously known from this area and probably a quite new 

 species. "Slender as an eel" is a term which could not be applied to this 

 deep-sea eel, which is so short and fat that at first sight it could easily be 

 taken for a burbot-like cod (Fig. p. 132). 



Flatfishes, which were so dominant on the soft bed of the continental 

 shelf, have been less successful in adapting themselves to deeper water. 

 One of the most fascinating forms caught on the Galathea was a flounder, 

 Azygopus pinnifasciatus, taken in the sensational trawl at about 600 

 metres in the Tasman Sea. On the tail of this fish are some dark spots, 

 two of which resemble eyes, and the theory has been advanced that their 

 purpose is to make pursuers mistake the tail for the head. However, the 

 fish lives at a depth which renders this camouflage illusory, as it is totally 

 dark. If the theory is correct, it provides us with one of the proofs that 

 deep-sea fish must have originated on the continental shelf. 



Another remarkable flatfish is the deep-sea turbot (Chascanopsetta), 

 of which we obtained 14 specimens off Natal at a depth of about 500 



Ateleopus natalensis, an almost transparent fish, 60 centimetres long, from a depth of ^00 

 metres off East Africa. In the foreground, cinder slag with hydroids on which are small goose 

 barnacles (Scalpellum). 



