Japanese fisherman reels in super-fish off the coast of Japan near Fukushima plant

If you look at the two photos, the top fisherman has the fish thrust toward the camera. You can just see his fingers protruding from under the fish and they are larger than the fingers of the lower fisherman who is holding his catch closer in to his own chest. The top fisherman is also leaning away from his catch making him seem smaller in relation to the fish and camera which is closer to the fish than the man.

It looks like he's holding it up with its face toward the lens on purpose so you can get a good look at its mouth which he might be doing to give you a look at its toothless state and the whole produces a shot that makes the fish look larger than it is.

originally posted by: network dude

originally posted by: UnBreakable
Alrighty then, looks like the general consensus is radiation has nothing to do with this fish. Only old age. Fukushima radiation is a hoax and has no affect on marine life. Carry on.

No need to be a drama queen. For genetic mutations to occur due to the Fukashima radiation, I think it may take more than a few years. The three headed fish man is scheduled to arrive in late 2023.

Hey Skippy, drama queen? I presented the article and it says "The catch may also add substance to Japanese fishermen's concerns over the effects the Fukushima nuclear accident is having on local fish populations". But apparently the people that fish those waters don't know that they're just dealing with fish suffering from old age.

originally posted by: ketsuko
If you look at the two photos, the top fisherman has the fish thrust toward the camera. You can just see his fingers protruding from under the fish and they are larger than the fingers of the lower fisherman who is holding his catch closer in to his own chest. The top fisherman is also leaning away from his catch making him seem smaller in relation to the fish and camera which is closer to the fish than the man.

It looks like he's holding it up with its face toward the lens on purpose so you can get a good look at its mouth which he might be doing to give you a look at its toothless state and the whole produces a shot that makes the fish look larger than it is.

The picture with the Japanese fisherman came from the article and they said it was a wolf fish. I took a picture from another image of a wolf fish. I didn't account for depth perception but rather to show how a "normal" wolf fish had teeth and a non-wrinkly head.

a reply to: UnBreakable

If you look at the gum line on the first fish, there are white specs there. It could be the fish broke off its teeth and is in the process of regrowing them.

a reply to: UnBreakable

I think everyone is just giving best guesses and only thing that would prove it is some testing of the fish.

It just shows all the signs of an old fish that has lost the ability to catch prey as before. After a few yrs of not eating as well it begins to shrink and the head being the largest bone mass does not decrease in size.

On the other hand perhaps the spill made it loose its teeth and it begin to shrink in body size but then that does not account for the healthy tissue.

Bottom line is that in order to grow to that size it would need teeth so one can assume that at one point yrs ago the fish was even bigger looking than it is now.

That's one ugly scary looking fish,if it taste as it looks then I'll pass. ..

tf

a reply to: deadeyedick

That scarred up face looks very old. Pity he had to be hauled out of the ocean and made into an internet star.

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

I think you nailed it right on the head. This appears to be a wolf eel at completely normal size.

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

Fairly certain this is correct. Here is a pic for reference and looks almost identical to the other one.



You can really see that it is a wolf eel by the tail in both pics. The wolf fish has a more fish like tail like the smaller one in the OP, the eel has an obviously different tail.

originally posted by: AlongCamePaul

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

I think you nailed it right on the head. This appears to be a wolf eel at completely normal size.

yep after looking at wolf eel pics it does look like one but that fish still has a major dental problem that could be caused by radiation but only test will tell.

originally posted by: deadeyedick

originally posted by: AlongCamePaul

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

I think you nailed it right on the head. This appears to be a wolf eel at completely normal size.

yep after looking at wolf eel pics it does look like one but that fish still has a major dental problem that could be caused by radiation but only test will tell.

Dental problems could also be caused by a 25 year lifetime spent eating its traditional diet of various crustaceans, clams and echinoderms too. So again, nothing extraordinary and easily explained by past experience and observation.

originally posted by: UnBreakable
Alrighty then, looks like the general consensus is radiation has nothing to do with this fish. Only old age. Fukushima radiation is a hoax and has no affect on marine life. Carry on.

Well, to be perfectly fair, there is always myriad other options that this just being old age and that Fukushima radiation is a hoax.

But stories like this make me want to go back to the old cliché that correlation does not equal causation. If there is no proof that this is because of radiation, it's ridiculous to just make that assumption.

a reply to: paradoxious

Like others have noted, I think you win the competition for logic on this thread.

originally posted by: paradoxious

originally posted by: deadeyedick

originally posted by: AlongCamePaul

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

I think you nailed it right on the head. This appears to be a wolf eel at completely normal size.

yep after looking at wolf eel pics it does look like one but that fish still has a major dental problem that could be caused by radiation but only test will tell.

Dental problems could also be caused by a 25 year lifetime spent eating its traditional diet of various crustaceans, clams and echinoderms too. So again, nothing extraordinary and easily explained by past experience and observation.

Yep
If one goes to google images you can see other wolf eels that appear to be large and toothless but looking from the outside there is also the possibility that this particular fish has been exposed and is showing signs. One can not be a hundred %sure unless test are done on that fish.

Texas had a law that catfish caught in nets and undersized must have there side fins removed by fisherman in the red river. It is no longer that way but one can go and catch some cats that went through that process and their heads 10yrs later are abnormally large compared to others.

Since this turned out to be a wolf eel and they get much larger than the wolf fish we can now assume that this fish may not be as old as we believed and could be suffering from something.

If you want shocking stories from the ocean how bout this one.

Marine life reduced by 50% since 1970

originally posted by: Vasa Croe

originally posted by: paradoxious
Three of five species of wolf fish live in the Atlantic. Since this was caught in the Pacific, and because of it's large size, it's likely a related genus, commonly called wolf eel. Wolf eel can grow to over 2 meters, so comparable to the specimen in the photo, and therefore nothing extraordinary and likely not caused by Fuku radiation since they've been seen to be that large prior to the accident.

Fairly certain this is correct. Here is a pic for reference and looks almost identical to the other one.

You can really see that it is a wolf eel by the tail in both pics. The wolf fish has a more fish like tail like the smaller one in the OP, the eel has an obviously different tail.

Good catch VC. So it is erroneously id'd as a wolf FISH in the source instead of a wolf EEL.