Rare Ribbon Fish Found

A weird and wonderful deep sea ribbon fish has been found on the Northumberland shore.

Author: OnlineFishing.tv
Date: 03 February 2009

A very rare sea fish has been found dead on the Northumberland coast and experts believe it to be the deep water Ribbonfish, OnlineFishing.tv can reveal.

The Ribbonfish – also known as an Oarfish – was discovered by three local men on the beach at Hauxley near Amble at the weekend.

As the men had no idea what species it was, they sent a picture to Sam Harris, a sea fishing programme presenter for BBC Radio Newcastle.

Sam took some time to research the find and explains: “I remembered a story of a woman catching a huge Ribbonfish off of the Cleveland coast in 2003 and this looked like the same creature. It is a very rare fish in UK waters – only three or four have been reported caught or washed up in the last fifty years – so I passed the image on to the team at OnlineFishing.tv to see if they could identify it for sure."

Head of Channel, Gareth Purnell, said: “It does look like a Ribbonfish – Regalecus glesne – and is rarely seen around British coast lines.

"They can grow up to 10 or 11 metres long and weigh more than a quarter of a tonne, but are usually more at home in deep, sub tropical oceans. Maybe warmer sea temperatures have pushed them into areas such as the North Sea?"

The Ribbonfish propels itself with a long undulating dorsal fin and is the longest bony fish in the sea. It is believed that this was feared by mariners for many centuries as a mythical sea serpent or monster.

Gareth continued: “We are filming a new programme soon about recreational cod fishing off of the North East coast. It may have no teeth, but I hope we don’t hook into one of these ugly brutes!"

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