The blobfish, described as the world’s ugliest animal, has been voted fish of the year in New Zealand.
The creature, which grows to about 12 inches (30cm) long, is known affectionately as Mr Blobby and is the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.
It has a bulbous head, and loose, flabby skin, and lives in the deep sea, mainly off the southeastern coast of mainland Australia, the Australian island of Tasmania, and New Zealand.
The blobfish topped the annual poll by the Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust, an environmental non-profit group, winning almost 1,300 out of more than 5,500 votes.
The animal, which has a gelatinous, tadpole-like body, benefitted from a late surge in support to overtake the endangered orange roughy, another deep sea dweller, by nearly 300 votes.
In their natural habitat, on the seabed at depths of about 2,000ft to 4,000ft (600m-1,200m), blobfish resemble any other fish.
But when brought to the surface, where the water pressure isn’t high enough to maintain their shape, blobfish morph into mushy creatures with an unfortunate appearance.
The trust’s co-director, Kim Jones, described the competition as “a battle of two quirky deep sea critters, with the blobfish’s unconventional beauty helping get voters over the line”.
The winner’s late run benefitted from the backing of two New Zealand radio hosts, Sarah Gandy and Paul Flynn, who encouraged their listeners to vote blobfish.
“We and the people of New Zealand had had enough of other fish getting all the headlines,” the broadcasters said.
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They said the animal “has been bullied his whole life and we thought, ‘stuff this, it’s time for the blobfish to have his moment in the sun,’ and what a glorious moment it is!”
A spokesperson for the Environmental Law Initiative, which sponsored the orange roughy in the race, said it had “no bloblem” with the result, stressing that it’s “still a win” for deep-sea ecosystems and can help raise awareness about the environmental impact of destructive bottom trawling.
The longfin eel, the whale shark and the great white shark were among the other fish in the top 10.