The iceberg broke away and revealed to scientists the secret kingdom of ice fish

Winter will soon surprise motorists again. 110 years ago, winter also surprised sailors. Explorer Ernest Shackletonin The Endurance ship ran aground on the ice in Antarctica in the spring and winter of 1915. That was the start of the famous rescue trip across the icy sea.

Icefish lives in the depths of that sea. It’s not cold from the handle. The fish swims silently in its freezing kingdom, and its veins flow with freezing liquid.

Modern day explorers got a glimpse of the icefish home when they traveled the Endurance route a few years ago. A whole city of fish was found in the depths: a huge number of nests of ice fish at the bottom of the sea. Group presents now with their findings in Frontiers in Marine Science.

Ice perch lives at a depth of hundreds of meters, where the sun does not shine much.

Even that little didn’t shine before, when the world’s biggest iceberg called A68 was over the ice perch’s home village. The fish were covered by 200 meters of ice. When this iceberg broke off and drifted away, scientists finally got to see what lives under the ice.

Ice perches build small pits on the bottom where they lay their eggs. Then the kalasukki guards the home hole with a monthly tolke. The nests are built side by side, in the same style as the new residential areas in the capital region. Cramped nooks and crannies with a window that looks directly into the neighbor’s living room.

A close-knit neighborhood keeps intruders in check. Eggs are eaten by, among other things, starfish that wallow in the mud of the sea. The fish house is organized in such a way that the biggest and strongest fish live on the outer edge and the smaller ones in the middle. In this way, the weaker ones benefit from herd protection.

Researched the ice perch is called Lindbergichtys nudifronsliterally “bald-fronted Lindbergh fish”. Mr. Lindberg was a Russian fish biologist. It is not clear whether he also had a bald forehead.

Some ice fish live so deep that there is frost on the bottom. Salty sea water does not freeze at zero due to the pressure of the depths. In a way, the blood of icefish contains antifreeze, i.e. certain glycoproteins that prevent the formation of ice crystals in the blood.

The researchers sailed on a ship called SA Agulhas II. The same ship found Shackleton’s Endurance at a depth of three kilometers in 2022. The polar research vessel Agulhas II was built in Finland, at the Rauma shipyard.