Wildlife in the Pacific Ocean off the Oregon Coast is a big deal — from whales to salmon to sea lions. But have you encountered a monkeyface prickleback?
On April 1, Rebecca Jones of Tillamook went rockfishing. It was one of her first times going out after her boyfriend showed her the ropes. She said she wanted to catch dinner — and boy, did she ever.
When Jones casted in her line, she caught something that didn't feel very strong, "but I thought, ‘you know, I'm just going to check’ and then reel it in and then it felt a little bit strong — and nothing," she recalled.
Her first thought was that she lost her catch, but she didn't despair: it happens, after all, and she thought she'd simply get up and rebait.
But then, "I pulled up this huge, ugly... what I thought was an eel, and I remember it just kept coming out of the water. It was so long, and I was looking at it, just so confused," Jones said. "It was really docile, so it was just sitting there long enough for me to even pull out my phone, take a picture, text that to a friend. And I said, 'What is this? What have I found here? What did I catch?'"
Her friend told her, but Jones didn't take what she thought was the bait. "I thought it was a joke: 'Monkeyface prickle back? Are you kidding me? Did you just make that up?'"
But after some Googling, Jones was able to confirm it was no April Fool's joke.
"And then I saw that I had something pretty big, and I was so excited," she said.
At 28 inches long and 4.8 pounds, Jones realized it was a special catch — but her excitement didn’t last long: It turns out that these fish can live outside of the water for up to 37 hours, so once it was landed, the real battle began.
“Then then this fish started to fight, and it was about half of my length and so I had to jump on this beast and hold it down. I almost lost it in the rocks, but I am telling you again, I am so determined — even through the scraping of the barnacles and almost losing it — I was able to pull it up, sit on it again and get that hook out and then get it into this mesh bag ... So that is the story of catching the ugliest thing that I have ever seen,” she concluded.
Monkeyface prickleback are often called “monkeyface eels,” and can be found along California’s and mostly southern Oregon’s rocky shores. They can live for up to 18 years.
The current world record monkeyface prickleback is 3 pounds and 4 ounces, caught in Yaquina Bay in 2008, so Jones’s 4.8 pounds would blow that out of the water. Jones is waiting for the official certification from the International Game Fish Association.
But the crucial question: how did it taste?
"(Like) lobster. It has the texture and a very delicate flavor because it is a rockfish," Jones explained. "And so, I could compare it to Cabazon or link cod, but the texture truly is like lobster. So that was surprising to me — I did not expect that."
In conclusion? "Don't judge a fish by its face," Jones said.