Today Jonathan goes on a wild goosefish chase in search of a really weird fish!
Welcome to Jonathan Bird’s Blue World!
If there’s one thing I love, it’s weird fish.
I have traveled all over the world to see frogfish, seahorses, and batfish.
But today I have come to the New England Aquarium to meet one of the weirdest, and coolest fish
in the world.
I’m meeting up with Cameraman Bill—part time Blue World cameraman and full time professional
aquarist.
Hey Bill, thanks for having me back to the Aquarium to check out this amazing fish!
Absolutely!
Always glad to have you back.
I just love goosefish.
I think this is one of the coolest fish in the world.
They are one of my favorites because they are an amazing animal with amazing abilities,
and they’re such an odd looking fish.
So, the basic morphology: flattened and camouflaged, they lay in the sand, and they’re ambush
predators, and they’ve got a lure.
Right.
And so they’re just trying to lure the prey in.
And what kind of prey would they lure in?
Generally speaking they kind of go for fish, but they could also go for squid or anything
else like that.
But the larger ones (you can see this is kind of a small one, they can get much bigger)
the larger ones have been known to take down ducks and geese.
So in really shallow water?
Right.
Interesting.
A lot of ducks and geese dive down to find fish or chase after and pick off things, so
when they dive down, these guys are in the shallows and they just take them down whole.
Their mouth is just full of needle-like teeth, you’re not getting out of that mouth.
The cool thing about their teeth also is all their teeth are angled inwards.
So that way, when something does get in, there’s no backing out of it.
It’s just one way to go and that’s down in.
It’s going down the hatch.
So, this one’s only about a foot long, but how big do they get?
They can get up close to five feet long.
The head can be about two feet wide.
They can be very big fish, very big mouths.
So you can eat a really big bite.
Very neat.
And how do you feed these guys?
Because they’re down here in the tank, we take a little fish on a stick and we’ll
dangle it in the water above him.
And once they start luring for the fish, then I kind of drag it over the top of them and
kind of wiggle it around like I’m a live fish and boom, they open their mouth really
quick, take it whole and there we go.
Well, in 29 years of diving, I’ve only seen one goosefish and it was about 25 years ago.
But, I heard a rumor that they saw three of them in the sand around a shipwreck out in
Stellwagen Bank last week.
So, I think it’s our opportunity!
Absolutely!
I would love to see these things in the wild so I’m absolutely game to go check this
out.
Well, let’s go diving!
Alright!
Three weeks later…
Well, it’s the moment of truth.
I am super excited but also really nervous.
I hope we can find this fish!
Hey Matt!
In Gloucester, Massachusetts, I meet up with Captain Matt Marcoux, who runs the Daybreaker
dive boat.
I’m joining a dive trip to Stellwagen Bank.
We are heading to the wreck of the Patriot, a fishing boat which capsized and sank in
2009 about 15 miles southeast of Gloucester.
We leave Gloucester Harbor on a beautiful summer morning.
We have a 90 minute ride to the wreck, so Cameraman Bill and I use the time to get our
gear set up and ready.
When we reach the wreck, mate Michael MacDonald and his dive buddy are the first ones in the
water.
They have to set the anchor before the rest of the divers go in.
Once everything is all set, they send up a marker with good news.
Ha ha!
They found some!
Bill and I are wearing dry suits for this dive.
This is my favorite part of putting on a dry suit right here!
Oh yeah!
The seal is starting to get a little worn out so it’s not that painful.
Even though the surface water is up to 60° Fahrenheit, the wreck is deep.
On the bottom, we will be working in 45° water.
That’s definitely cold!
The sea is flat clam as we hit the ocean.
With our cameras in hand, Bill and I make the long descent down the anchor line to the
wreck.
We pass through a thermocline—the boundary layer between different temperatures.
The water is swirly and makes our vision blurry.
We emerge below it into icy cold water, but at least the visibility is better.
Like most wrecks, the Patriot has become an impressive artificial reef.
This boat which used to be used for capturing fish is now a haven for fish.
It’s overgrown with hydroids, sponges and anemones, and harbors thousands of Pollack,
Cunner and cod.
Where there is a reef attracting marine life, nearby there are always predators hoping to
take advantage of the situation.
Out on the sand, skulpin--hoping for some small fish to come by.
The skulpin however, are both hunter and hunted.
They’re not the only predators lurking around the wreck.
Even with the bright light supplied by my camera system, the Goosefish is exceptionally
well hidden in the shallow depression it dug in the sandy sea floor.
It waits patiently for prey to come close.
Fleshy tassels all around the edges of its body help to disguise its shape.
Even the mouth has camouflage between the teeth.
It lays perfectly still, breathing only once or twice a minute, exhaling through concealed
gill openings.
All it takes is for one fish to come within striking distance.
As they get closer, the Goosefish begins flicking its lure.
This is a fish going fishing.
A hake comes close, wandering around the sea floor while using its chemo-sensitive whiskers,
called barbels, to hunt for food and sense predators.
The goosefish doesn’t move a muscle.
That was a close one.
As I continue to film, other potential meals approach the goosefish.
It finally makes a move.
But that hake is just too big for this small goosefish.
Knowing its position has been revealed, or perhaps in response to an annoying guy with
a camera, the goosefish decides to relocate.
It’s not exactly a graceful swimmer.
I could spend hours down here filming goosefish, but at this depth--over 100 feet--we have
very limited time before decompression obligations start to add up.
So it’s time for Bill and I to head back up the anchor line.
At 15 feet, we spend a few minutes doing a safety decompression stop in the warm surface
water, and celebrate having finally filmed a Goosefish in its natural habitat.
I do love weird fish.
The Goosefish is flat and camouflaged like a Tasselled Wobbegong shark, but has a lure
like a frogfish.
It has concealed gill openings like a Batfish.
But uses sand for camouflage like a flounder.
The goosefish truly may be the weirdest--and coolest--fish in the Blue World.