Abyssal rainbow gar

Abyssal rainbow gar The abyssal rainbow gar drawn by Else Bostelmann for Beebe. Classification Osteichthyes Proposed scientific names Other names Sea reported Atlantic Ocean First reported 1934 Prominent investigators • William Beebe

The abyssal rainbow gar was a cryptid deep sea fish reported once, off Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean, during a 1934 bathysphere dive by William Beebe. Beebe tentatively referred to the fish as garfish or needlefish (family Belonidae), but admitted that this was only a guess. Of all the deep-sea cryptid fish described in detail by Beebe, the abyssal rainbow gar is the only one to which he did not assign a scientific name.

Description

The abyssal rainbow gars were described by Beebe as around 4 in (10 cm) long, with "slender and stiff" bodies and "long, sharply pointed jaws". They were strikingly coloured, with scarlet heads, blue bodies, and yellow tails. Beebe observed a group of four, swimming "almost upright ... only a slight fanning with a dorsal fin. Keeping equal distances apart, and maintaining their upright pose...".

Sightings

1934

From 1930 to 1934, Beebe and his colleague Otis Barton (1899 – 1992), based on Nonsuch Island in Bermuda, performed several pioneering deep sea dives in a bathysphere, an unpowered submersible designed by Barton. These record-setting dives allowed them to observe deep sea life alive for the first time. During the thirtieth descent, on 11 August 1934, Beebe described the rainbow gar to his colleague at the surface, Gloria Hollister (1900 – 1988), by telephone from a depth of 2,500 ft (762 m).

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Also 4 fish with pointed scarlet bills and heads, the rest of the body a light blue fading into clear yellow. Gar-like. Bully view. They are swimming slowly out, their position obliquely upward.

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In his book Half Mile Down (1934), published the same year, Beebe included a more detailed account of the rainbow gar sighting.

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At 11:17 o'clock I turned the light on suddenly, and saw a strange quartet of fish to which I have not been able to fit genus or family. Shape, size, color, and one fin I saw clearly, but Abyssal Rainbow Gars is as far as I dare go, and they may be anything but gars. About four inches over all, they were slender and stiff with long, sharply pointed jaws. They were balanced in the center of the electric ray when it was first turned on, and the unheard-of glare affected them not at all. There they stood, for they were almost upright, and I could see only a slight fanning with a dorsal fin. Keeping equal distances apart, and maintaining their upright pose, they swam slowly into the uttermost dark. The amazing thing about them was their unexpected pattern and color. The jaws and head were brilliant scarlet, which, back of the gills, changed abruptly into a light but strong blue and this merged insensibly into clear yellow on the posterior body and tail. Unless in the light of some other fish, or in my electric path, their colors could never have been visible, and were assuredly useless by-products.

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Theories

Beebe referred to the rainbow gar as a possible needlefish (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Beebe formally described four cryptid fishes seen during his dives off Nonsuch Island: the giant dragonfish (Bathysphaera intacta), pallid sailfin (Bathyembryx istiophasma), five-lined constellationfish (Bathysidus pentagrammus), and three-starred anglerfish (Bathyceratias trilynchus). Although he informally described the abyssal rainbow gar in his book, cautiously assigning it to the needlefish family Belonidae, he never described it scientifically. Due to the circumstances of Beebe's observations, he has been accused of inventing some of his "abyssal fishes".