DOGFISH

Wow - it's so clear. Beautifully captured. I've never seen one before.
Swimming in the harbour, most of it's body was above water. They last for many hours aboard boats after being taken out the nets. They have no market value these days as such. This was discarded from a boat clearing it's nets alongside the quay from a nights fishing.
As Kids we'd row two or three miles out and catch many dogfish,they are very tasty at least I found so, but very susceptible to ammonia if not stored cold enough as Tuna can and therefore pretty dangerous to eat if so. Here and many places they were sold as Rock Salmon in fish and chip shops, that got stopped in about the 80's from memory.
In the past the fishermen would skin them to send to market. They are I am led to believe in the shark family so no scales just a rough skin like sandpaper. When long-liners caught black conger eel's they always mixed in dogfish which on the trip home would stay alive and wriggle among the eel's taking all the black slime from them and they would therefore be sold as white congers which always fetched twice the price. Idiotic really as the only difference between black and white congers as they are the same species, are the habitat, where the black conger lives in amongst the dark kelp weed and rocks , taking on that colour and slime from the kelp and the white ones on sand. Values of the time I guess.
 
Was this just over the quayside or were you out on a boat? The patterns on it's skin come out so clearly in mono and it almost appears to float above the water. And I really like the space around it.
yes Pete it was sort of lost and head out the water. It had been aboard a boat for a few hours before being discarded. It will survive and make it's way out to sea again. Tough creatures.
 
Interesting stuff, Julian. I'm still partial to Rock Salmon / Huss myself and occasionally buy some in a fishmongers when they have it. The ammonia just washes out / volatilises if it has formed and is a result of the way they excrete urea - best eaten fresh though. I slightly misread your second response and thought you'd been on the boat before being 'discarded'! I seem to recall that the skin was once used as a fine sandpaper in certain types of cabinet making and, I think, clock making. And, yes, a type of shark and not a bony fish. One finds their egg cases washed up on the shore at times - mermaids purses. It was once one of the standard dissection pieces in the study of biology: I have vague memories of dissecting out the cranial nerves - Ah, the joys of youth! :confused:
 
Interesting stuff, Julian. I'm still partial to Rock Salmon / Huss myself and occasionally buy some in a fishmongers when they have it. The ammonia just washes out / volatilises if it has formed and is a result of the way they excrete urea - best eaten fresh though. I slightly misread your second response and thought you'd been on the boat before being 'discarded'! I seem to recall that the skin was once used as a fine sandpaper in certain types of cabinet making and, I think, clock making. And, yes, a type of shark and not a bony fish. One finds their egg cases washed up on the shore at times - mermaids purses. It was once one of the standard dissection pieces in the study of biology: I have vague memories of dissecting out the cranial nerves - Ah, the joys of youth! :confused:
Yes , I guess you'd know but are not certain people very sensitive to Ammonia or is that a wives tale.
 
Well, when concentrated it is poisonous but not in the concentration you'd get in dogfish. The odour threshold is very low and it is very soluble in water and volatile so probably mainly an old wives tale - or maybe a fish-wives tail! ;)
 
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