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Here’s an unexpected addition to our 2025 bingo card: young women across the internet have been devastated by the demise of a nightmarish fanged fish. A black seadevil anglerfish (unflatteringly described by one marine biologist as “pretty much evolved to be a giant head”), usually a deep-sea dweller, was recently caught on camera swimming close to the surface by a shark research group near Tenerife. Sadly, apparently sick or injured, it died.
This, however, was only the start of the anglerfish’s journey in the hearts and TikToks of young women. The fish’s story has triggered an outpouring of emotion. The narrative they have adopted is that the tiny anglerfish, who lived her life in darkness, wanted to feel the “sun on her face”, so swam alone through the vast ocean to do that before expiring. There have been tattoos, poetry and oceans of tears. “If you have a girlfriend right now, do yourself a favour and go ask her how she’s feeling about the anglerfish,” wrote one TikTok user. “There is a 98% chance she has already bawled her eyes out about it.”
What catharsis is this creature providing? Yes, she was small and female, but males are even smaller – a tenth of the size. I wonder whether anglerfish parasitism (the teeny males are absorbed into females’ bodies, serving solely to provide sperm as needed) might appeal at a time when women’s reproductive autonomy is existentially threatened, but not only is that a massive stretch, but this particular species is non-parasitic. So that leaves me with lots of young, especially American, women really not being OK right now. A doomed creature swimming through a hostile environment evoking big feelings? Understandable.
I’m almost certainly reading too much into it. Weepy animal stories are irresistible to me, even if the animal isn’t – I hope the anglerfish would have forgiven me for saying – conventionally cute. It’s nice to see a bit more fellow feeling for fish, anyway: the recent revelation that bream can distinguish between individuals based on their wetsuits just confirms that fish are complex, cool, clever and fascinating. Unlike certain politicians.
Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist
