pelagic

The scientists said deep divers, such as sperm whales, and pelagic dolphins showed a steadier increase in strandings since the 1990s.

J. janthina are a pelagic snail species, meaning they spend their lives at the surface of the ocean as opposed to in tide pools or along the ocean shore.

Now the scientists — who were researching pelagic sharks at the country’s Canary Islands — are going to study the anglerfish’s body, hoping to learn more about its uncharacteristic behavior.

"Higher swells, sea surface temperatures are much warmer and they're having difficulty getting flying fish now at the beginning of our pelagic season."

They then employed Bayesian models to reconstruct ancestral habitats, revealing that ceratioids originated from benthic ancestors before transitioning to the pelagic zone.