Arctic Fish Population Established
in Cantabrian Sea off Asturias

A new fish species has moved into Asturian waters. The Ribbon Fish or Deal Fish (Trachipterus Arcticus) is native to the waters of Iceland and Norway. It is a very slow growing fish, measuring between four to six feet in length, and takes fourteen years to reach sexual maturity. The first example of this exotic species was found in Asturias three years ago by local fish specialty restaurant owner Enrique Rodríguez, when a decomposed body washed up at a local beach. Recognizing it as a species hitherto unknown in Asturias, he called CEPESMA, the Center for the Study and Protection of Maritime Species. Researchers there looked at the stomach contents of the large fish and found several different types of smaller fishes native to the Cantabrian Sea off of Asturias, indicating the fish had lived in the area for some time. In the time since then, researchers at the institute have spread the word about this fish, and 384 examples have been recorded in Asturian waters, with the greatest frequency between June and December. One was caught in Tazones just three weeks ago. The Deal fish is a solitary species and only groups during mating season, which indicates a very large area must now be populated by this species. The director of the center suggests that this might mean a change in ocean currents in bringing colder water into the Cantabrian Sea.

Might we now hope for a return of the great herring shoals that abandoned these waters in the late nineteenth century in one of their periodic but as yet unexplained migrations?