12 October 2023 03:32 pm Views - 8543
A rare deep-sea fish species was found by a group of fishermen engaged in fishing in the sea area off Nainamadama.
The fish was caught by a multi-day trawler belonging to the Wellamankaraya Fishery Harbour in Nainamadama.
The harbour manager said this was the first time that they saw a rare fish like this, and it was kept aside at the harbour. This species of fish is not edible.
According to the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), the fish species is known as Rabbitfish (Rhinochimaera atlantica - Broadnose Chimaera) and is found near Canada, Colombia, France, Gambia, Iceland, Mauritania, Mexico, Namibia, Senegal, South Africa, Suriname and the United States. Its natural habitat is the open sea.
This fish is the least-concern species in the family Longnose chimaeras and lives more than 1,500 metres deep in temperate oceans.
The NARA said this type of fish was found after a survey conducted by them in 2018.
An individual fish can grow up to 140 cm. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)