Ambitious Deep‑Sea Gorging Kills

Some deep‑sea predators (here, the black swallower Chiasmodon niger) routinely swallow prey far larger than themselves by extreme jaw and stomach distension. That strategy can backfire: undigested prey decomposes, produces gas, forces ascent and mortality, producing a predictable trade‑off between bold feeding and survival that shapes deep‑sea carcass flux and predator life histories. — Understanding this feeding trade‑off matters for deep‑sea ecology, carbon and nutrient transfer, and how limited observations (ROV footage, rare dead specimens) bias our picture of ocean food webs.