Wildlife

See-Through 'Fish' Startles New Zealand Fishermen

A northern New Zealand fisherman and his two sons were baffled after pulling in a nearly foot-long translucent marine creature that looked a lot like a see-though fish.

“It felt scaly and was quite firm, almost jelly-like, and you couldn't see anything inside aside from this orange little blob,” Stewart Fraser told the Daily Mail.

Researchers from the country’s National Marine Aquarium examined photos of the catch and believe it was likely a Salpa maggiore.

"The salp is barrel-shaped and moves by contracting, pumping water through its gelatinous body," said Paul Cox from the aquarium.

Little is known about them or how the unusually large one caught by Fraser came to be so far from its normal habitats in the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica.