Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

33 страница из 133

Diving around these parts I also came across my first monkfish, a thoroughly evil looking flat fish which looks like a large nan bread from your local curry house. It has a huge semi-circular mouth ringed with nasty teeth that runs like a zip around the wide top of its head at the front. Its two small eyes sit behind giving it good vision.

As I was growing up as a child in Fraserburgh I had heard from fishermen how the jaws of this fish, once it has bitten something, lock fast and hold on - it just doesn’t let go. Monkfish amongst a catch of fish were a continual hazard for local fishermen at sea. They would often put their hand randomly into the catch of fish to pull out the next fish for gutting. If there was a monkfish in the pile of caught fish and it was still alive it could snap at them and cause serious damage to their fingers. I gave this monkfish a wide berth - resisting the temptation to prod it with a stalk of kelp lest it come after me.

On another dive we came across an evil-looking wolf fish. This fish, enticingly called rock turbot in specialty seafood restaurants, has a very soft white flesh and is exquisite battered or fried. But in the wild these eels are blue/black, about five feet long and have the meanest looking head and set of teeth and jaws you can imagine – designed to crush crabs and sea urchins.