It is easy to believe that the black seadevil anglerfish, with its gaping maw of razor-like teeth, a bioluminescent rod sticking out of its head and lidless eyes used to scan the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, might make someone cry with fright.
It is perhaps less believable that such a creature, the kind so freakish it inspired a particularly scary scene in the children’s movie “Finding Nemo,” would move people to genuine, raw tears of emotional overwhelm.
On social media, a seadevil has done just that, becoming a folk hero in recent weeks after swimming great lengths from its typical home, some 200 to 2,000 meters deep in the ocean, to the surface. Some of the fish’s fans have turned the watery odyssey — which ended in death — into a poignant version of the hero’s journey.
“My first reaction was, ‘Oh my god, this fish is terrifying,’” said Hannah Backman, 29, who lives in Minneapolis and posted about the fish on TikTok. But, she said, she eventually succumbed to the poetry of a lone fish approaching the light: “This poor fish is just spending her literal last seconds trying to do something beautiful.”
“I did shed a few tears,” she added.
In late January, the seadevil made headlines when it was spotted near the surface by a group of researchers off the coast of Tenerife in the Spanish Canary Islands. It was a rare event and “a dream come true,” said one photographer with the group who was able to capture the fish on camera. The team observed the fish, which was already injured when it was spotted, for several hours. The seadevil ultimately died.
Still, at least online, its memory lives on. Its fans have posted tributes set to ballads, written poems, created fan art and even gotten tattoos. Several people have posted videos of themselves bawling over the fish; others have called for Pixar to adapt its story into a film.
Why did the seadevil decamp for the surface? We do not know for certain, although scientists have speculated that it might have had to do with illness or an unusual current. Weepy fans of the fish on TikTok, however, have woven a beautiful, and probably fanciful, narrative for the fish: a story of a creature in its final days, desperate to experience a source of light not generated by its own body.
Madison Sharp, 25, a behavioral therapist in Dallas, noticed an outpouring of emotion for the fish in her social media feeds this week. “Instead of just seeing a fish reach the surface, they see hope, and meaning, and symbolism,” she said of the other social media users who had selected the fish as a receptacle for their “big feelings.”
On Monday night, she was inspired to create her own freehand illustration of the seadevil approaching the surface. She added tears to its eyes, and the word “finally” floating above the waterline.
“I think the most important part was the expression of the fish,” she said. “I added the little eyebrow on top to show the longing of it.”
Humans are wont to turn a charismatic animal into an anthropomorphized folk hero. Last year, New Yorkers latched onto the story of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo as a charming outlaw. (Like the seadevil, Flaco did not make it out alive.)
Ms. Backman said the fish resonated with her in part because it was a female, small and alone, trying to navigate a vast and dangerous sea. It also heightened her fears for the natural world during a time of environmental threats.
She acknowledged that she was attributing a layer of metaphor to an animal that had shared nothing about its motivations. But the scary-looking aquatic heroine has stuck with her anyway.
“She was just this poor, little, very-sharp-toothed fishy,” Ms. Backman said.
