Black sea devil fishing fish with razor-like teeth gaps, bioluminescent sticks protruding from the head, and lidless eyes used to scan the deepest and darkest depths of the ocean, It's easy to believe that you might make someone cry with fear.
It's probably not so much that such creatures, the kind that stimulated a particularly scary scene in the children's film “Finding Nemo,” will drive people to the emotional overwhelm of real raw tears.
On social media, Sea Devils do just that, swimmering from a typical home to the surface to the sea depths of about 200-2,000 meters, before becoming a folk hero in recent weeks. Some fish fans have transformed the watery Odyssey, ending in death, into a heart-pounding version of the hero's journey.
“My first reaction was, 'Oh, this fish is horrible,'” said Hannah Bachman, 29, who lives in Minneapolis and posted about the fish to Tiktok. However, she says she has succumbed to the poem of a lonely fish that finally approaches the light.
“I shed some tears,” she added.
In late January, Sea Devil made the headline when it was discovered near the surface by a group of researchers off the coast of Tenerife, the Spanish Canary Islands. It was a rare event, and “dreams come true,” said one photographer who was with a group who was able to catch fish on camera. For several hours, the team observed a fish that had already been injured when it was found. Sea Devil eventually died.
Still, those memories continue, at least online. The fans created tributes, written poems, fan art set on the ballad, and even tattooed. Several people have posted videos of themselves running around the fish. Others are calling on Pixar to adapt the story to the film.
Why did Seadevil decamp the surface? Scientists speculate that it may have been linked to diseases and abnormal currents, but we certainly don't know. But fans of Tiktok's Fish Crying Weave a beautiful, perhaps fantastical story for the fish. The story of creatures in the last few days is eager to experience a source of light that is not produced by their own body.
Madison Sharp, 25, a Dallas behavior therapist, noticed a fish pouring in emotion on this week's social media feed. “We don't just see the fish reach the surface, we see hope, meaning and symbolism,” she said of other social media users who have chosen the fish as a container of “big emotions.”
On Monday night, she was inspired to create her own freehand illustration of the Sea Devil approaching the surface. She added tears to her eyes, and the words “finally” floated above the waterline.
“I think the most important part was the representation of fish,” she said. “I added a small brow on top to show that longing.”
Humans cannot transform charismatic animals into personified folk heroes. Last year, New Yorkers were turned over by the story of Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl, who escaped from the Central Park Zoo as a charming outlaw. (Like Seadevil, Flaco didn't bring it to life.)
Bachman said the fish was a woman trying to navigate the vast and dangerous oceans, and was alone, so some resonated with her. It also raised fear of nature in an age of environmental threats.
She admitted that she attributed the layer of paraphor to animals who shared nothing about their motives. However, the aquatic heroine, who looks scary, is stuck with her.
“She was like this poor, small, very sharp-toothed fish,” Bachman said.
