Sunday, November 22, 2020

N.L. fisherman shocked to catch a long-nosed chimaera


CBC News brings you the fantastic story about Garry Goodyear fishing for turbot on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and Labrador when he hauled in a rare long-nosed chimaera. The fisherman says he's never seen anything like the weird creature.

Turbot is an interesting fish. The turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an important food fish. Turbot in the Black Sea have often been included in this species, but are now generally regarded as separate, the Black Sea turbot or kalkan (S. maeoticus). True turbot are not found in the Northwest Atlantic; the "turbot" of that region, which was involved in the so-called "Turbot War" between Canada and Spain, is the Greenland halibut or Greenland turbot (Reinhardtius hippoglossoides).

The Rhinochimaeridae, commonly known as "long-nosed chimaeras", are a family of cartilaginous fish. They are similar in form and habits to other chimaeras, but have an exceptionally long conical or paddle-shaped snout. The snout has numerous sensory nerve endings, and is used to find food such as tasty small fish. The first dorsal fin includes a mildly venomous spine, used in defense. Long-nosed chimaeras are certainly found in temperate and tropical seas worldwide, from 200 to 2,000 m (660 to 6,560 ft) in depth. These fantastic creatures range from 60 to 140 cm (2.0 to 4.6 ft) in maximum total length, depending on species.

What is cartilaginous? ZOOLOGY - (of a vertebrate animal) having a skeleton of cartilage.

Cartilage is certainly a resilient and smooth elastic tissue, a rubber-like padding that covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints and nerves, and is a structural component of the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the bronchial tubes, the intervertebral discs, and many other body components.

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