DALATIA comes from Dalatias licha, the Dalatias shark. A deep-sea animal that recently revealed one of the ocean's most beautiful secrets.
In 2020, a team of scientists studied sharks brought up from the deep sea off New Zealand. To their surprise, three of the species produced their own light.
The biggest of them, Dalatias licha, can reach almost two meters long. That makes the Dalatias shark the largest glowing vertebrate ever observed. Until then, living light was mostly linked to small creatures: jellyfish, plankton, tiny deep-sea fish. A shark this size lighting itself up had never been documented this way before.
| Size | Up to about 1.8 m |
|---|---|
| Habitat | Deep sea, the twilight zone |
| Depth | Often between 200 and 1000 m |
| Claim to fame | Largest known glowing vertebrate |
Its skin holds tiny light-producing organs. The Dalatias shark makes a soft glow of its own, usually in blue-green tones, the colors that travel best through deep water.
Deep down, a predator looking up sees shapes stand out against the faint light from the surface. By lighting up its belly, the shark erases its own shadow and becomes almost invisible.
Researchers think the light may also help it move, hunt near the seafloor, or communicate. Many questions remain open: the deep sea still keeps plenty of secrets.
Between the sunlit surface and the pitch-black abyss lies a layer of water where daylight slowly fades away. That is where these sharks live. It is a vast, barely explored part of the ocean, and yet it is essential to the balance of the whole sea. Knowing it better is the first step to protecting it.
The Dalatias shark inspires me. It shows that the ocean hides wonders we are only beginning to understand, and that science can still amaze us.
Just as this shark lights up the dark of the deep, I want to shed a little light on that hidden world, at my own scale. That is what DALATIA is about: observing, listening and sharing the sea, to make people want to protect it.
This discovery was reported by National Geographic. A good read to learn more about these glowing sharks.
Read the National Geographic article ↗
Source cited for reference. The text on this page is written in my own words.
Start by building a hydrophone and listen to what happens below the surface.
Discover the hydrophone