MARVEL OF GOD'S CREATION  #6

The Angler Fish

One of God's amazing creations is the deep-sea
Angler fish. This fish makes its home more than a mile deep in ocean
water. On her forehead the female has a "fishing rod" tipped with an
"artificial worm". She dangles this "bait" over her mouth to attract her
next meal. Ah, but there is a problem -- her next meal cannot
see the bait, since it is too dark under more than a mile of sea water.
Starvation sets in while she waits for her first deep sea fish dinner.
At last, she realizes "I must do something about this darkness problem".
But, alas, it is too late. She is dead and dead fish can not evolve the
adaptations needed to rectify problems, even though evolution says she
doesn't evolve something until her situation (or environment) tells her
that it is needed to survive.

The only possibility is that God created the Angler fish
with all the fully-functional equipment it needed to survive at great
depths. To solve the darkness problem, God created a special kind of
light on the bait. This light displays highly advanced
technology -- it gives off no heat! A compound called
Luciferin is oxidized with the help of an enzyme scientists named
Luciferase, and this reaction produces heatless light. Ask an
evolutionist how a deep-sea fish could evolve the ability to produce
high-tech light on an artificial bait dangled over the fish's mouth? God
has made His creation to display His glory and power. No one could look
at the Angler fish and say it is the result of the "impersonal plus time
plus chance", unless that person had already decided to refuse to
believe in the God of the Bible (Romans 1). The vain speculations of
evolution lead to foolish thinking and impossible
conclusions.

Naturally, the Angler fish needs to reproduce and has a
special way of doing this. In the darkness of the deep, it is difficult
for the male and female to find each other. God designed the eggs of the
female so that they float up through a mile of ocean to the surface. On
the ocean surface the eggs form a jellylike mass and then hatch. The
young fish, male and female, grow and mature in the surface waters. At a
certain point in their development, the male finds a female and bites
and holds on to her abdomen. Soon the tissues of the female grow into
and attach to the mouth tissues of the male, and the female drops to the
bottom of the ocean carrying her parasite male with her not to separate
"til death do they part". He found her in the light of the surface
waters, so he does not have to grope around in the dark of the deep
looking for a mate. How could all of this evolve when it is so
ultra-specialized and unique?

Why does the female not chase the male away when he bites
her abdomen? Evolution provides no explanation. What possible
evolutionary mechanism enables the male's circulatory system to merge
with the female's? And from what creature did this peculiar fish evolve?
Evolution has no answers.

A major difference between the Angler fish and other fish
is the Angler's lack of a swim bladder, which is an air sac to provide
buoyancy and to prevent sinking. If it had evolved without an air
bladder, it would sink and die. If it had an air bladder and had evolved
the bait and light in surface waters, it would be easy prey for other
predators and "survival of the fittest" would force it into
extinction.

Another feature of the deep sea Angler is its special
body, which is designed to prevent crushing. A pressure of over 2,000
pounds per square inch is exerted on the body of the fish at one mile
deep. It survives this great pressure with no problem. On the other
hand, if the first Anglers were surface fish and lost their air
bladders, (through let's say, some unexplainable genetic mutation) and
then sank to the bottom of the sea, they would have been crushed. Dead
animals don't evolve any further.

The deep-sea Angler had to have been created with all its
special equipment fully functional. God says that as we study His
creation, it should cause our thoughts to focus on the Creator and to
give Him thanks and honor Him as God (Romans 1).[1]

[1] For a super treatment
of the Angler fish and other highly specialized animals read: The Natural Limits to Biological
Change, by Lane P. Lester and Raymond G.
Bohlin (Zondervan, 1984).

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