Felix barged into the Mystical dorm room with an exciting plan in mind. He said, “Mysticals, it’s time for an adventure! Let’s visit the world’s largest icefish breeding colony!”
Icefishes are a member of any of the 16 species of fish with a see-through skull. It has transparent white blood as its blood lacks red blood cells.
Scorch quizzed, “Where is this fish breeding colony located?”
“In Antarctica!” replied an enthusiastic Felix. Antarctica is the coldest continent covered with ice all around the year. Other than a few researchers, people hardly live here.
“No way I’m traveling to Antarctica,” said Scorch.
“Oho, is Scorch afraid of a little cold?” teased Felix.
“Me and afraid?” scoffed Scorch, “That’s fancy coming from you, Felix.”
“Mysticals, we’re traveling in our tempus machine anyway. Don’t worry about the cold. I’ll maintain the temperature,” assured Orak.
Even so, when Felix boarded the tempus machine, he was covered from head to toe in sweaters, mufflers, and shawls. Verum said, “I can’t even see you under all those layers, Felix!”
The Mysticals soon found themselves at the Filchner Ice Shelf in the south of the Antarctic Wendell Sea. It is a large body of floating ice near the coast of Antarctica. Orak now led the tempus machine towards the massive breeding colony of icefish.
A tiny hand popped out from the layers of woolen wear and pointed towards the breeding colony. From the depths of the shawls, Felix said, “This breeding colony consists of 60 million icefish. It’s the biggest fish breeding colony in the entire world.
The 92-square-mile area was discovered by the German polar research vessel Polarstern in February 2021. Icefish nests are concentrated in this area with about 1735 eggs per nest. The vessel used a car-sized camera system to click pictures.”
“How fascinating!” said Orak, “But why are the nests here in particular?”
“That’s because the water in the area is warmer by 2℃ than the surrounding sea bed. The sea bed is 0℃,” replied Felix.
“Oh, interesting,” said Verum.