Pardachirus marmoratus, also known as the finless sole or the Red Sea Moses sole is a small fish from the Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

 that secretes an ichthyotoxic milky substance from the base of its dorsal

Dorsal fin

A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of various unrelated marine and freshwater vertebrates, including most fishes, marine mammals , and the ichthyosaurs...

 and anal fins. This secretion contains pardaxin

Pardaxin

Pardaxin is a peptide produced by the Red Sea sole that is used as a shark repellent. It causes calcium to leak from shark cells....

, a lipophillic peptide that causes severe plasma membrane disruption resulting in cell leakage. The pardaxin containing secretion is used as a defensive mechanism against predators including sharks. Pardaxin is irritating to predator fish, particularly affecting the sensitive gills. Dr. Eugenie Clark

Eugenie Clark

Eugenie Clark , popularly known as The Shark Lady, is an American ichthyologist known for her research on poisonous fish of the tropical seas and on the behaviour of sharks.-Academic life:...

 conducted much of the early work on Pardachirus marmoratus.

There is much biotechnological interest in pardaxin, early interest focused on potential shark repellent applications while newer research foucuses on antimicrobial and neurotoxic potential of pardaxin and its analogues.

There is a myth that while Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

was splitting the Red Sea, this poor fish was caught in the middle and was split in half.