Monday, November 05, 2007

Looking for Monkfish

I have been fascinated by Monkfish for a long time. Its out-of this-world look make this fish very special. A monkfish is basically a huge mouth on a huge head and a tiny body. It is a flat fish, very tasteful to eat and not that easy to find.

Few weeks ago a friend sent me an email to tell me that they have recently seen monkfish around a shipwreck which lays 36 meters (120 feet) below the surface, near Machichaco cape, not far from my place. I manage to organize a dive that same day and got my first photos of a monkfish:

Diving in the Gulf of Biscay

The coast near my home town, Bilbao (Spain), is where I learnt how to SCUBA dive in the early 90's. Before then I spent countless hours free diving and spear fishing the cold and dark waters of this area of the Atlantic Ocean called the Gulf of Biscay.
In the last few years my trips around the world have taken me to some of the most amazing dive destinations in the planet and I haven't had much time to go back and dive in my local waters.
Well, finally this summer I found a beautifull day to dive in Castro and get face to face with some old fishy friends.
This is one of them: