TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Researchers have discovered a new species of fish near Taiwan and named it Malakichthys formosus.

The silvery fish is about 7.5 cm long, with bulging eyes and translucent fins. It’s not a beauty but is unique among the sea bass family to which it belongs partly because of an absence of chin spines, according to researchers in a Zootaxa article published this month.

National Taiwan Ocean University’s Shing-Lai Ng, Kwang-Ming Liu, and S.J. Joung named the fish for historical reasons, as Taiwan used to be called Formosa. "It is commonly believed that European sailors passing Taiwan record the island's name as Ilha Formosa, or beautiful island," according to the Taiwan government website. There was also a 151-day Republic of Formosa that governed Taiwan in 1895.

The fish are found in deep waters off Taiwan in the northwest Pacific Ocean, where they are said to dwell at a depth of about 300 meters. There are nearly 500 kinds of sea bass.

The discovery was big news in the U.S. at the Miami Herald, which reported anglers caught some of the previously undiscovered formusus and took them to a market where they were handed over to researchers for identification. And the rest is history.