![]() ![]() ![]() The French call it Araignee de mer and devour some 30 million pounds a year. After being processed, spider crab is sold as snow crab, tanner crab and queen crab. The meat is equal to any edible crabmeat, it just comes in an unappealing package. These monsters have extremely long legs and their bodies are covered with a dense growth of chitinous hairs, which accounts for their name. But the stone crabs’ cousin - the spider crab - is another story. Most people are familiar with the succulent meat of stone crabs and the crabs’ rather benign appearance. Houndfish can grow to 5 feet in length, and, while they look like a cross between a Disney cartoon character and a science-fiction beast, they can be a tasty item. I’ve broken many a steel-point knife on rose fish.”Īnother odd species is the serpent-like houndfish, whose pale-green, heavily boned flesh and multitoothed beak discourage would-be diners. “It tastes just like chicken,” Grosscup insists. Bill Grosscup, captain of the Sea Eagle, a Key West dive boat, says that rose is a rare treat when filleted, basted with lemon garlic sauce and grilled to perfection. More unusual than shark and more of a challenge to prepare for consumption is the rose fish, with its huge eyes and sharp gill points. Some shark, including cow and Greenland shark, can be toxic, but most varieties are delicious when used in a range of dishes, from appetizers to casseroles. Often, it is marketed under different names, such as harbor halibut, rock salmon and whitefish, to make it more palatable. It wasn’t long before Terry was contentedly chowing down on “Captain Pat’s Hunan Grouper Head.”īecause of its poor public relations, shark has never been a popular consumer fish, though it is served regularly in restaurants and is available in fish markets. “Pat promised that I was in for a real treat once he finished preparing those fish heads.” But once caught, skinned and marinated, it makes for wonderful eating. Even a small jewfish (60 pounds) is capable of breaking all but the heaviest tackle. Catching a jewfish, though, is not as simple as meeting one. Jewfish prefer shallow water, so encounters with divers and fishermen are common. It often reaches a weight of 800 pounds, and its huge, roll-lipped mouth can easily encompass a human. The jewfish, long credited with being the Biblical home of the prophet Jonah, is an overgrown member of the bass family found in the Gulf of Mexico, along the coast of South America and in South Florida waters. But had the tables been turned, the dentist could have taken home a great delicacy. The fish undoubtedly exercised sound judgment. The giant fish sucked the man through rows of fierce-looking fangs and was up to the dentist’s shoulders, so the tale goes, when it spit him out and swam away in pursuit of a more delectable dinner. The teeth gleamed in the mouth of a mammoth jewfish that came upon the dentist while he was scuba diving. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council states that cubera snappers can reach an age of 55 years.ON THE DOCKS OF GARRISON Bight, Key Westers still talk about the time a local dentist provided the filling for a fancy set of teeth. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission states that cubera snappers are commonly about 40 pounds in weight, which helps put Sherron's catch into perspective. The cubera snapper, also known as the Cuban snapper, is a fish that lives in the Western Atlantic ocean from Nova Scotia down to Brazil, though it's rarely seen above Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. In any case, Sherron's catch is currently pending. It's not clear why there is a discrepancy in the figures. By this measure Sherron's catch could be a world record. However, the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) states that the heaviest all-tackle Atlantic cubera snapper was caught in Louisiana in 2007 and weighed 124 pounds and 12 ounces. At the same time Texas Parks and Wildlife also states that heaviest saltwater cubera snapper caught by other methods was a 151-pound fish caught by handline in 1984. The rod and reel state saltwater records, per Texas Parks and Wildlife, show the heaviest cubera snapper, listed at 131 pounds, was caught in 1983. ![]() State records in Texas are split into different categories based on the method with which they were caught and whether it was a freshwater or saltwater catch. Photos show Sherron standing with the large gray and orange fish and also show it being weighed.įish records are not always simple. A spearfisherman caught a large cubera snapper fish in the Gulf of Mexico this month. A stock photo shows someone spearfishing. ![]()
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