Now, more than 40 years later, Ted retains that same enthusiasm and excitement for these grumpy-looking creatures. He began to remove the redundancies, and in 1972 he delivered his doctoral dissertation, which narrowed the 400 named species of anglerfishes down to 130. But once he looked at individual specimens in museum and research collections, he discovered that many of the same fishes had been described and named multiple times. When Ted began his research, there were about 400 named anglerfish species. Still, instead of spending too much time hoping to catch anglerfishes, he elected to visit collections around the world and to “sit and look at what’s in jars.” Well, it’s more than just looking at them-researchers like Ted take measurements and document all types of data, like what the fish ate before its death. I touched this one on the tail, and she zipped around and caught me with her fang-like teeth!” And then there’s the risk (and excitement) of hauling in a live anglerfish.
“You can go out for weeks at a time aboard a research vessel that fishes above 1,000 meters and you may never get one.” Ted said. Kluge believed that Nafpaktitis, a new professor at the time who was searching for new students, would provide more opportunities. While he had high hopes to study under well-known herpetologist, his mentor, famous lizard biologist Arnold Kluge, encouraged him to apply to study under Basil Nafpaktitis, an ichthyologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Like many researchers, Ted started down his particular path thanks to a serendipitous moment and a push from a mentor.Īs an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Ted began studying herpetology to pursue his interest in snakes. I recently sat down with Ted in his office at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Science building to discuss his history with these fascinating creatures. Theodore (Ted) Pietsch, Burke Museum curator of fishes and University of Washington (UW) professor, has grown to love them, having spent a lifetime of study on a group of fishes known as the deep-sea anglerfishes. While this may sound like a terrifying deep-sea monster, Dr.
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