monkfish

See goosefish.

[Perhaps from the cowled appearance of its head.]

Lophius americanus

FAMILY

Lophiidae

TAXONOMY

Lophius americanus Curvier and Valenciennes in Valenciennes, 1837, North America.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Goosefish, anglerfish.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Like most lophiid anglerfishes, the monkfish is distinguished easily from other anglerfishes by its very large, wide, flattened head. Lophiids also have an enormous mouth armed with long, sharp, conical teeth, and the angling apparatus and second dorsal fin spine arise very close to each other at the anterior end of the snout. The monkfish has a number of derived character states, among which are increased numbers of dorsal and anal fin rays and vertebrae, gill openings restricted to a location completely behind the pectoral fin base, and a variety of cranial osteological features. The monkfish is distinguished from its congeners by several morphological characters.

DISTRIBUTION

The monkfish is known to occur from the Grand Banks off Newfoundland south to the east coast of Florida (about 29° N latitude) and from just below the tide line (only at high latitudes) to depths of more than 2,625 ft (800 m). However, few large individuals are taken below 1,312 ft (400 m). This is the only member of the genus found in the western Atlantic north of Cape Hatteras.

HABITAT

Adult monkfish have been found on soft and hard substrates including soft mud, soft sand, hard sand, pebbles, gravel, and broken shells.

BEHAVIOR

Most of what is known about lophiid behavior comes from observations of the monkfish and another species, Lophius piscatorius; general aspects of this behavior are described earlier, in the ordinal account. Aristotle made the very first observations of angling behavior. He described them as having hairlike filaments hung before their eyes, with knobs attached like bait to the end of each filament. When little fishes come in range of the filaments and strike at them, they are led down with the filaments into the monkfish's mouth. Such observations were not recorded again until 1925, when Bigelow and Welsh reported the observations of W. F. Clapp, who observed monkfish catching young tomcod (Microgadus tomcod) in the eelgrass beds of Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Like all lophiiform anglerfishes, monkfishes are voracious ambush predators. Their diet consists primarily of fishes, and when given a choice, they prefer soft-rayed fishes to spiny-rayed species. When the opportunity presents itself, however, they take any prey large enough to engulf. This includes fishes nearly as long as itself. The alternate name goosefish alludes to the fact that the monkfish has been known to engulf marine birds when it enters shallow coastal waters at high latitudes during the winter months. (Cormorants, herring gulls, widgeons, scoters, loons, guillemots, razor-billed auks, grebes, and other diving fowl, such as scaup ducks and mergansers, have all been recorded as stomach contents.) Smaller monkfishes are known to feed on a wide variety of invertebrates, including small lobsters, crabs, squid, and polychaetes.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

As mentioned earlier, the monkfish is one of the few lophiid species for which detailed life history information is available. Long, mucoid egg veils are characteristic of this species.

CONSERVATION STATUS

During the latter few decades of the twentieth century, the popularity of monkfish increased steadily in U. S. markets. Because the liver also is highly sought by the Japanese market, fishing pressure on this species has resulted in overexploitation. Fortunately, this species has received some protection from the U. S. National Marine Fisheries Service. This species is not listed by the IUCN.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

As Lophius americanus has gained popularity with consumers in the United States and there is strong demand for it in the Japanese market, this species has tremendous economic importance.

A white fish, Lophius piscatorius.

For more information on monkfish, visit Britannica.com.

For the TV series character, see The Fast Show.

For the cryptid, see Sea monk.

A monkfish in a market

A monkfish in its natural environment

Monkfish (or Headfish) is the English name of a number of types of fish in the northwest Atlantic, most notably the species of the anglerfish genus Lophius and the angelshark genus Squatina. The term is also occasionally used for a European sea monster more often called a sea monk.

Monkfish is the most common English name for the genus Lophius in the northwest Atlantic but goosefish ^[1] is used as the equivalent term on the eastern coast of North America. Lophius has three long filaments sprouting from the middle of the head; these are the detached and modified three first spines of the anterior dorsal fin. As in most anglerfish species, the longest filament is the first, which terminates in an irregular growth of flesh, the esca. This modified fin ray is movable in all directions. This esca is used as a lure to attract other fishes, which monkfish then typically swallow whole. Experiments have shown, however, that whether the prey has been attracted to the lure or not is not strictly relevant, as the action of the jaws is an automatic reflex triggered by contact with the esca.

It grows to a length of more than 5 ft; specimens of 3 ft are common.

Two species Lophius piscatorius and Lophius budegassa are found in north-western Europe and referred to as monkfish, with L. piscatorius by far the most common species around the British Isles and of major fishery interest. In Europe and North America, the texture of the tail meat of fish of the genus Lophius, is sometimes compared to lobster tail and has been alluded to as the "poor man's lobster."^[2] According to Seafood Watch, monkfish consumption raises sustainability concerns due to past overfishing (though populations are now recovering) and damage to the seafloor habitat resulting from the use of trawlers and gillnets to catch this fish.^[3]

A second group of fish also known as monkfish are members of the genus Squatina, in the angel shark family Squatinidae. These are of somewhat similar shape to the anglerfish, but completely unrelated; as they are elasmobranchs. These fish are only of minor significance for human consumption, though they are endangered because they are caught as bycatch by trawlers.

References

1. ^ David Stevenson, Louis Chiarella, Dianne Stephan, Robert Reid, Kurt Wilhelm, John McCarthy, and Michael Pentony (January 2004). "Characterization of the Fishing Practices and Marine Benthic Ecosystems of the Northeast U.S. Shelf, and an Evaluation of the Potential Effects of Fishing on Essential Fish Habitat". NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS NE 181. http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/nefsc/publications/tm/tm181/. 
2. ^ Amy Zuber (August 4, 1997). "Monkfish: 'poor man's lobster' comes out of its shell". Nation's Restaurant News. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_n30_v31/ai_19648691. 
3. ^ "Monkfish - Seafood Watch". Seafood Guide. Monterey Bay Aquarium. http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=13. Retrieved on 2009-06-10. 

See also

• Lophiiformes
• Anglerfish

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lophius piscatorius

• The Compleat Lophius
• Monkfish facts, Maryland Department of Natural Resources
• NOAA Monkfish Research Program
• Guide to Responsible Sourcing of Monkfish - produced by Seafish

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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