BIG FISH GRABBED FROM SEAL’S MOUTH

Press, Volume C, Issue 29672, 16 November 1961, Page 14

BIG FISH GRABBED FROM SEAL’S MOUTH

McMURDO SOUND, Nov. 1. Three men—witlh the help of a Weddell seal—tod&y caught whart is believed to be toe (largest living fish ever taken from toe waiters of toe southern Ross Sea.

The men were preparing to pull a fish trap up from the sea bottom through a hole in the 6ft thick sea ice when suddenly a seal carrying a large fish in its mouth burst to the surface of the waiter.

Although astonished by this sudden and unforeseen development, the men lost no time in grabbing the fish and pulling it away from the equally surprised seal. They ended up clutching a 52in fish weighing 581 b. The exact identity of the fish could not be deetrmined, although it is of toe family Notothenidae, a group not often found in warmer waters and having no commonly known names. The fish bears a strong resemblance to the partly decom-

posed fish remains found off the nearby Dailey Islands last year. The latter have not been identified yet either, but have been found to be up to 1100 years old. The three men who grabbed toe fish were Messrs J Peanse, of Stanford Univer®®y. W. G. Fry, of the Univensuty of toe Pacific, and R M. Brennan, of Kaiser S,ngincci s. When they encountered toe fish-carrying seal, Messrs Pearse and Fry, who are biologists, had just arrived with Mr Brennan at a small hut built around an ice hole 3ft in diameter about naif a mile from the station here. Through this hole, marine biologists had taken small bottom fish and invertebrates throughout the last Antarctic winter. Today the men had planned a routine trap-pulling. Instead they obtained what is probably the largest living fish ever caught in the McMurdo Sound area.

The largest previous known catch in these waters was a fish of the same family taken during toe British national Antarctic expedition 1901-04 (Scott’s first expedition). This fish was also caught through an ice hole, but with a missing head and damaged body. It weighed 391 b and measured 46in. Mr Pearse is completing a study of marine invertebrates, such as starfish, in the McMurdo Sound area. Mr Fry arrived in toe Antarctic two weeks ago to study sea spiders. Mr Brennan is representing his firm as an inspector of the National Science Foundation for toe nuclear power plant being constructed here. He was visiting toe ice hole when the fish was found.

The research carried on by Messrs Pearse and Fry, as ell American scientific research in toe Antarctic, is supported by toe National Science Foundation.