It’s not an April Fools joke, the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODFW) said early last week when they shared photos of a potential world record for a strange-looking fish called a Monkeyface Prickleback. The bourbot-like monkeyface weighed in at 4.8 pounds and measured 28 inches long. Angler Rebecca Jones caught it off a jetty near the coastal town of Garibaldi on April 1.
“ It wasn’t a hard fight, the fish came right up,” Jones said. “It was a very strong fish though, I had to sit on it to get the hook out.”
Sure enough, the monkeyface prickleback is a legitimate species. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the fish prefers rocky shorelines like those found along the Oregon coast. The species’ range extends from northern Oregon down to Baja, California, but the fish rarely move more than 15 feet from the rocky crevices they call home. And if the fish’s name wasn’t weird enough, it can also breath air—and in moist areas, the monkeyface prickleback can survive outside of the water for more 35 hours.
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Jones caught her record-setting monkeyface on a sand shrimp she dug herself. She just started hunting and fishing a few years ago, the ODFW said in its press release. Now she hunts deer, elk, bear, and turkey and fishes frequently in both fresh and salt water.
If her record is confirmed, it’ll top the International Gamefish Association’s all-tackle world record for the species by more than a pound. That monkeyface weighed 3 pounds, 4 ounces. It was also caught off the Oregon coast in June of 2008.
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