Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

By Ronen Zilberman, Star-Bulletin
Longliner Frank Barone displays an inedible, 8-foot
ribbon fish caught Saturday 75 miles off the coast of Oahu.

Fisherman catches
rare ribbonfish

---

Star-Bulletin staff

When Frank Barone brought in a unique 8-foot fish this weekend, there wasn't much he could do with it but have a picture taken.

The 27-year-old longline fisherman said this is only the second time in 15 years he's seen what he believes to be a ribbonfish. It was caught 75 miles off Oahu, he said.

"It's rare to see those kinds of fish," he said. "You never know if it's an unidentified species. Some things have been caught that aren't normally in these waters."

Since the fish is inedible, Barone said he would have liked to have given the fish to researchers or educators, as an observer on a previous trip had done with a rare crest fish (similar to the ribbonfish "except it has a red mohawk going down the back"). However, no one was available during the holiday weekend.

The ribbonfish is rarely found in waters near the main Hawaiian Islands, but Barone said he has heard that other longliners farther north have had their entire lines filled with the fish at times.