Blobfish

Meet Mr Blobby

In June 2003, during the NORFANZ expedition, a fish was trawled from between 1,013 and 1,340 meters down on the Norfolk Ridge, northwest of New Zealand. The scientists and crew on board the research vessel Tangaroa nicknamed it Mr Blobby. The Australian Museum, which now holds the specimen (AMS I.42771-001) in its ichthyology collection, identifies it as a blobfish, Psychrolutes microporos, and notes a parasitic copepod on its mouth. The specimen was first fixed in formaldehyde and is now kept in 70% ethyl alcohol. Fixing it tightened Mr Blobby’s skin, so his “nose” has shrunk and, in the museum’s words, “he no longer retains his ‘cute’ look.”

How Big It Gets

The Mr Blobby specimen measured 285 millimeters, about 11 inches, in standard length, which leaves out the tail fin. That is one individual, not the species’ limit: FishBase lists a maximum total length of 63 centimeters, about two feet, for Psychrolutes microporos. The species belongs to the family Psychrolutidae, whose members are called blobfishes or fathead sculpins. The name “fathead sculpin” refers to the large, globular head and “floppy” skin typical of these fishes. The genus name, Psychrolutes, comes from the Greek psychroloutes, someone who has a cold bath.

Life on the Deep Seafloor

FishBase lists Psychrolutes microporos as a marine, deep-water fish that is bathydemersal, living on or near the sea floor, in the southwest Pacific off New Zealand. Its family is found more widely: the Australian Museum notes that fathead sculpins live in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans at depths between 100 and 2,800 meters. Little is known of their biology, though some have been found with gastropods, the group that includes sea snails, in the stomach.

Out of Water The Australian Museum describes Mr Blobby’s body as “flabby and not adapted to be out of water.”

Little Is Known

Jeff Leis, quoted by the Australian Museum, says neither the eggs nor the larvae of the blobfish have been described, though other Northern Hemisphere members of its family have eggs attached to the bottom and deep-bodied larvae with short guts and short, blunt snouts. Leis notes that psychrolutids are cold-water fishes, found at high latitudes or in deep water, and would expect them to be harmed by rising ocean temperatures from climate change, but he is not aware of any studies that address this in psychrolutids. FishBase rates the species as harmless to humans and, citing the 2025 IUCN Red List, lists its status as Not Evaluated.