Meet the Blobfish

A deep sea fish of the family Psychrolutidae. The Blobfish inhabits the deep waters off the coasts of mainland Australia and Tasmania. The Blobfish live at depths where the pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level. The flesh of the Blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass with a density slightly less than that of water. This allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending energy on swimming. Its relative lack of muscle is not a disadvantage as it primarily swallows edible matter that floats by in front of it. It eats mostly urchins, mollusks and crustaceans.

The Blobfish resembles a lump of jelly, and sports a triangular face that seems to sport a miserable frown.

The Blobfish is not edible so its endangered status is from ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time.’ Blobfish are being trapped in fish nets set by trawler fisherman.

Professor Callum Roberts, a marine expert from the University of York, has stated that ‘this miserable looking fish has a lot to be miserable about.’

In his book The Unnatural History of the Sea , Professor Roberts said: "Blobfish are very vulnerable to being dragged up in these nets and from what we know this fish is only restricted to these waters. The Australian and New Zealand deep trawling fishing fleets are some of the most active in the world so if you are a blobfish then it is not a good place to be. A very large amount of the deep sea is under threat from bottom trawling which is one of the most destructive forms of fishing. There are some deep water protected areas around sea mounts in the Southern Ocean but that is only really to protect coral and not the blobfish.”

Rare White elephant caught in Burma 'is omen of political change'

The female elephant was captured by officials on Saturday in the coastal town of Maungtaw in Rakhine state, according to news reports in Burma, also known as Myanmar.

She is aged about 38 years old and seven feet four inches tall, the English-language New Light of Myanmar said, although it did not mention where she would be kept.

White elephants are often depicted as snow white, but are in fact grey or reddish-brown in colour, turning light pink when wet. They have fair eyelashes and toenails.

Kings and leaders in Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country, have traditionally treasured white elephants, whose rare appearances in the country are believed to herald political change and good fortune.

The announcements of the discoveries of white elephants in 2001 and 2002 in Burma was seen by opposition leaders as bolstering support for their parties.

The South-East Asian country, which has been ruled by the military since 1962, is due to hold its first elections for two decades later this year, although a date has not yet been announced.

Earlier this month, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate and Burmese opposition leader, marked her 65th birthday under house arrest in Yangon.

The military regime has kept Ms Suu Kyi in detention for almost 15 years and she has been barred from running in upcoming elections that critics have denounced as a sham aimed at entrenching the generals' power.