A dark elongated fish with a white stripe swims across a sandy ocean floor.
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Grideye Fish
While the focus of Dive 01 of the 2026 Cook Islands ROV Exploration cruise was on testing remotely operated vehicle systems, the team did catch a glimpse of this grideye fish on the seafloor. These fish have highly modified, platelike eyes thought to function primarily to detect bioluminescence from potential prey.
Credit

NOAA Ocean Exploration, 2026 Cook Islands ROV Exploration.