Little-known pancake batfish could be one of oil spill's early victims (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Kelly Lynch, CNN
June 16, 2010 8:58 p.m. EDT

(CNN) -- The Deepwater Horizon oil spill has already claimed many victims -- from pelicans to oyster beds and precious marshland. But there may be one more: a species only just recently discovered.

Scientifically known as halieutichthys aculeatus, it is not a thing of beauty. But it lives an anonymous sort of existence on the seabed of the Gulf, some 1,500 feet below the waves and -- like all marine life in the gulf -- plays its role in the food chain.

Its more digestible name is the Louisiana pancake batfish. And if oil stays deep under water, the gulf could lose it before it's even officially recognized as a species.

While scientists are uncertain what the long-range effects of the massive spill will be on the gulf's delicate balance of life and death and its complex food chain, the little-known Louisiana pancake batfish is a case in point of one species whose very existence is in that balance.

Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty, an ichthyologist -- otherwise known as a fish biologist -- and assistant professor at Louisiana State University, found himself face-to-face with the little fish during a deep-sea trawl in the gulf with the university last fall.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/14/gulf.oil.threatened.species/index.html?hpt=C2

[Captain Hilts]

1. Damn. nt

[stuntcat]

2. What if this animal is wiped out totally by this 'mistake'?

What if loggerhead turtles are wiped out forever? It's sick and dirty, so nasty it's Evil, so Evil it makes the whole human race the embodiment of Evil. And no pure innocent baby or saintly old lady will stop what we're doing en masse