(N de P / 13-07-10) On June 24 Shipowners Association of Marín (Pontevedra, Galicia) gave the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) a specimen of a strange fish that has appeared for the third time in Galicia. This species is known as “jellynose fish” and its scientific name is Ijimaia loppei.
It is rare and very little common, it lives throughout the eastern Atlantic Ocean but their usual area is from Morocco to South Africa. The specimen was captured by the ship Nuevo San Cibran off Coruña (Galicia). It measures 4.5 ft, weighs over 4 kg and was donated to the team of the ICES Fisheries of the Oceanography Centre of the IEO in Vigo where it was identified, and biometric data and sampled for genetic analysis were collected.
Part of its skeleton is cartilage, although they are true bony fish (hard skeleton) and are not related to elasmobranches. The head is big, with a bulbous and gelatinous nose after which it is named. The mouth is inferior and has no teeth. The skin has no scales.
It can be as long as 6.5 feet and the body is long and ends in a pointed tail with a very small caudal fin. A long anal fin runs along the back of the body. Dorsal and pectoral fins are prominent and are located just behind the head. Pelvic fins are modified to form two strands that contact with the seabed.
The jellynose fishes or tadpole fishes are the family Ateleopodidae (order Ateleopodiformes). They are tallest fish that live in deep-waters, with several species distributed in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Most of them are rare and little known, and they are very rarely caught.
The projects of the “Programa de Investigación y Evaluación de recursos pesqueros Demersales en el Atlántico Noreste”, of the IEO, aim to study marine populations and their capture by the Galician and Cantabrian fisheries.
For years, fishing masters, fishermen associations and port personnel, observers on board and others have been collaborating with the work developed by the IEO, and providing very important information for the knowledge of marine fauna.
