Rare deep sea creature the ‘Black Sea Devil’ captured on video – Nov 23, 2014

Deep-sea anglerfish are strange and elusive creatures that are very rarely observed in their natural habitat.

Fewer than half a dozen have ever been captured on film or video by deep diving research vehicles.

This little angler, about 9 cm long, is named Melanocetus. It is also known as the Black Sea devil and it lives in the deep dark waters of the Monterey Canyon.

MBARI's ROV Doc Ricketts observed this anglerfish for the first time at 600 m on a mid water research expedition in November 2014.

We believe that this is the first video footage ever made of this species alive and at depth.