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Monkfish
Pictures and text by Rudolf Svensen
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Eye of the Devilfish |
Monkfish |
The Monkfish (Lophius piscatorius )
is not a beautiful sight. In earlier days the fishermen
used to throw it into the sea again when they caught it
in their nets. Today is the white meat of the monkfish
highly prized, and the Norwegian stock is threatened by
over fishing.
The monkfish is easy to identify with its enormous head
and tiny tail. It has developed its own way of catching
food. Some may say that the monkfish is both a
commercial fisherman and a game fisher. It is commercial
because it has to fish to survive but it is also a game
fisher since it uses a fishing rod. The rod is the front
spine of the fin on its back. It has a piece of skin on
the end. When it is hungry, the monkfish will wave the
rod in front of its mouth. If a curious fish comes to
inspect the moving piece of skin, it will be swallowed
in one piece.
I once found a monkfish with a 4 kilos salmon in its
belly and the summer 2000 we could read in Norwegian
newspapers about a monkfish that had eaten an adult
otter.
The monkfish may grow to a length of two metres and a
weight of 60 kilos. It lives on the bottom where it
hides helped by its natural camouflage.
Monkfish |
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