The Ugly Animal Preservation Society names the blobfish as its new mascot after a global online vote. The gelatinous fish lives
at depths of up to 1,200 meters off the coast of Australia where it feeds on crabs and lobsters. It's under threat as it often gets caught up in fishing nets... but you wouldn't want to eat it.
(CNN) -- With the grandiloquence befitting such an occasion, Simon Watt, the British biologist, television personality and "president for life" of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, made the long-anticipated announcement Thursday night.
"The votes have been counted and verified," said Watt. "The mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society is ... the blobfish!"
GALLERY: World's most hideous creatures
Watt presented a certificate authenticating the choice of blobfish as the organization's mascot to Paul Foot, the UK comedian who had championed the gelatinous fish as the society's new mascot.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), blobfish "look like a big, blobby tadpole, just a mass of pale, jelly-like flesh with puffy, loose skin, a big nose and beady, staring eyes."
They're not very big either, growing only to about 12 inches in length.
NOAA says nobody has ever seen them eat, but the British Science Association says they feast on crabs and lobsters.
Blobfish are found mainly off the coast of southeastern Australia and Tasmania. Like many of the world's ugliest fish, they prefer to lay low, usually at depths of 2,000 to 4,000 feet (600 to 1,200 meters), bobbing around above the bottom of the ocean.
Which is a shame, really.
This cross between the cartoon character Ziggy and an anemic lump of jelly deserves to be seen by the masses.
The Ugly Animal Preservation Society is dedicated "to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature's more aesthetically challenged children."
Led by Watt, the group of like-minded comedians spent the summer fishing around for public nominations as part of its pursuit to name the world's ugliest animal.
With the help of the British National Science and Engineering Competition, Watt put together a YouTube page on which ugly animal fans could watch 11 comedians plead their cases for 11 ugly but endangered animals.
In the end, the blobfish and its champion, Paul Foot, came out on top.
Other contenders included the proboscis monkey, a primate with an obscene schnoz; the flightless dung beetle; and the unfortunate pig-nosed turtle.
MORE: Search for the world's ugliest animal
See the video with Watt and Foot on the Ugly Animal Preservation Society website.
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On the right you'll notice a somewhat ugly bird named the kakapo, a critically endangered parrot. It's the only flightless parrot in the world and has very muscular thighs, according to the British Science Association. On the left is former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark.
The blobfish also had stiff competition for the title of world's ugliest animal from the likes of the proboscis monkey, a big-schnozzed primate that avoids mirrors on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo.
Found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the warthog is like a weird assemblage of other animals' parts. Surely only its own mother could love it ... but even then.
North America's largest land bird is likely to get by on brains, rather than looks.
This living dinosaur native to the Indonesian island of Komodo and others actually drools slime. And its bite is venomous. Don't keep as a pet.
Despite its name, implying -- in English, anyway -- some sort of affirmation, this teeny Madagascan primate looks like something left behind in a horror movie prop department and mysteriously brought to life.
Found lounging hugely on beaches worldwide, the elephant seal looks like someone big, ugly and violent you wouldn't want to encounter in a pub. Curiously enough, those three words also nicely sum up the animal's striking sexual encounter.
The monkfish. Hangs out in: the Atlantic. Lacks: aesthetic charm. What more to be said?
Draping itself around Central and South America, the three-toed sloth has a face that looks as if it was put together by a negligent depressive.
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