Fish Full of Antifreeze Protein Found Off Greenland
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  • Writer's pictureKyle Sooley-Brookings

Fish Full of Antifreeze Protein Found Off Greenland


American Museum of Natural History

When looking for ocean creatures we look to warmer waters but there is one creature that thrives in cold water but is becoming threatened by climate change.


The variegated snailfish lives at a depth from 0 to 647.9 metres in the Arctic, Northwest Pacific Ocean to Northeast Atlantic Ocean, Greenland, Canada, Baffin Island and Southeastern Alaska living among seaweed and rocks.


The species survives in such cold conditions because it is full of an antifreeze protein. The species has also been found to be biofluorescent.


The American Museum of Natural History said in a report that with warming oceans, "ice-dwelling specialists such as this snailfish may encounter increased competition by more temperate species that were previously unable to survive at these higher northern latitudes."

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