Hawaiian Mystery Fish

The crew of Sea Strike stumbles upon a strange creature off the Kona coast.

By Jon Schwartz BluewaterJon.com
  • Published:January 18, 2013
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The Kona coastline on the Big Island of Hawaii is world renowned for spectacular big game fishing just a short distance from shore. The Big Island is technically the world's largest mountain and the sea-floor plummets to depths of 1,000 fathoms or more within five miles of the shoreline. Owing to this fact, it comes as no surprise that there have been numerous reports and sightings of unusual deep-sea creatures in the area over the years. One such unusual encounter occurred on new year's day 2013, when Captain Dale Leverone was trolling for marlin off Kona with his 13-year-old son Jack.
Dale is a 30-year veteran Kona skipper and Jack is already a seasoned first mate, but nothing could have prepared them for the oddity that they encountered that day. Trolling the ledge aboard his 31-foot Bertram, "Sea Strike," Dale noticed something very unusual floating in the water.
From his seat on the flybridge Dale saw what appeared to be a long, shiny, metallic object lying motionless just below the surface of the water, and Jack noticed fresh blood in the water and realized that it must be some kind of animal. The creature was long, thin, and seemed to be missing its head and tail.
"Due to the presence of blood in the water, the Leverones assumed they had interrupted a shark as it was attempting to eat the mystery fish."
The Leverones couldn't resist the opportunity to scoop the unique creature out of the water with a net for a closer look. After hauling it aboard, they snapped some quick photos with their smart phones and came to the conclusion that it was probably an oarfish. They knew that oarfish typically have a length-to-girth ratio very similar to the snake-like creature they had just found. Dale had heard reports of this unusual species being encountered before in Hawaiian waters but there was no way for them to positively identify the fish because it was missing its head and tail. Due to the presence of blood in the water, the Leverones assumed they had interrupted a shark as it was attempting to eat the mystery fish. The event certainly sparked their curiosity, but as they were in the middle of fishing a tournament they posed for a few quick pictures with the fish before putting the carcass on ice and continuing trolling.


During a lull in the fishing action, Jack posted photos of the fish on Facebook, and a small group of fishing friends hit "Like." As the pictures began to circulate around the web, they sparked further interest into the story. Between Hawaiian fishing expert Jim Rizzuto and two NOAA fisheries biologists, no one wanted make a definitive call on the creature's true identity. The fish had lost its head and tail to predation, which made it nearly impossible to match it up with any of the different species that shared the same silvery, snake-like body structure. Initially, the most likely possibilities for a match were an Oarfish (a species of Lampiphorm) a Hawaiian Ridge Scabbardfish (a species of Cutlassfish) or a King of the Salmon (a species of Ribbonfish), but no one really knew for sure.


When the Leverones returned to the docks in Kona that evening, they cut some fillets off the fish (bringing new meaning to the term "mystery meat") and disposed of its carcass. Many deep ocean fish are actually quite tasty, and they planned on cooking the fish for a once-in-a-lifetime meal. The Leverones ended up discarding the meat when they arrived home and found that the fillets had turned to a jelly-like substance in the bag. Although oarfish are known for having gelatinous flesh, there wasn't enough physical evidence to suggest that this was the species at hand.


It has been a month since the fish was discovered and its true identity has yet to be determined, but several reliable sources have narrowed down the possibilities to one distinct species, the Razorback Scabbardfish. This rare species of cutlassfish is known to grow to a length of around 2.5m(8.2ft), which corresponds to the size of the headless carcass found by Jack and Dale. Not only that, subtle markings on the skin of the mystery fish look similar to those found on the Razorback Scabbardfish, and its geographical distribution does not rule out its presence in the waters off Kona. Regardless of the creature's true identity, the Leverones' discovery demonstrates how little we still know about the creatures that inhabit the ocean's depths.

Story courtesy of Jon Shwartz. Visit Jon's blog at
BluewaterJon.com
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