A diver made quite the fun find in Bali, crossing paths with a fish that was ‘walking’ the ocean floor.
Emeric Benhalassa, a French cook and recreational diver, captured footage off the coast of Bali during a night dive of the funky fish that appeared to be tiptoeing on its fins.
Benhalassa thought the ‘walker’ to be a type of stingfish, one of the world’s most venomous fishes.
But further investigation by National Geographic reveals that the fish’s identity is actually quite contentious since it’s such a rare creature.
Scientists contacted by Nat Geo can overall agree that the fish is likely of the genus Minous, a stingfish, as Benhalassa thought, but the fish could be any number of species.
It could be a striped stingfish, Minous trachycephalus, a painted stinger, M. pictus, or a M. quincarinatus, more commonly known as the whitetail goblinfish, or even a completely new, undiscovered species, depending on which scientist you ask.
While the stingfish—whatever species it is—doesn’t actually have legs, it is its pectoral fins that have separated through evolution. Those fins sweeping the floor are the fish’s way of hunting for worms and crustaceans.
“The stingfish came to meet me probably thanks to the light,” Benhalassa told Nat Geo. It was “bizarre and pretty … I thought that this could please the Internet.”
Turns out Benhalassa was spot on about pleasing netizens. Since Nat Geo posted his footage on Monday, the video has gotten over six million views and is trending #47 on YouTube, as of Tuesday morning.
The ‘walking stingfish’ isn’t the only fascinating animal behavior out of Bali to go viral lately. Monkeys at Bali’s Uluwatu temple have been stealing from tourists and bartering back their valuables for food. This behavior has not been observed yet anywhere else outside of Bali.
