Fish Story

There was this family out playing at and in the ocean off northern California. A mother, father, a couple of teenagers, the whole bit. The father and two sons were in the water freediving for abalone. Aside from the abalone diving, the youngest son also bagged his first fish. It wasn't entirely clear how it was accomplished; in the aftermath, it seemed that a spear and an abalone iron were involved. Regardless, after this kid bagged the fish, he yelled to his father to find out if it was okay to take a fish underwater. His father yelled back that it was okay if the fish was big enough. The kid asked back whether 4 feet (1.3m) was big enough. Dad thought that was pretty funny and said, sure, no problem.

Well it turns out this fish was more like 5' in length and like nothing I'd ever seen before. It had a very slim, elongated body with a peduncle lateral keel running most of the length of the body. The sail-like dorsal fin was very fragile, stood 4" or 5" high, and ran a few feet along the top of the body. There was a small, rudder-like adipose fin, tiny anal fins, long, spikely pectoral fins, and sharp v tail. The eyes were the size of dimes and the fish had no scales at all. The most commanding of features was a huge mouth that included some REALLY long fang-like teeth.

It took me a few minutes when I got home to look this creature up. It turns out to have been a Longnose Lancetfish which is one of the largest species of deep-sea predatory fish yet discovered. Why it was on a shallow, near-shore reef and what it was doing are questions that are only superceded when wondering what went through that kid's mind when he encountered it. Regardless of what that may have been, he probably landed a breath-hold spearfishing world record for a fish normally found in 1000s of feet of water.

No kidding.

Last Modified: November 23, 2005

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