In a rare occurrence more than 50 varieties of fishes and marine species, some rare and endangered, were caught during shoreline fishing by fishermen at the R.K. Beach on Saturday. Some of the rare and unusual varieties fish found in the mixed catch included porcupine fish, puffer fish, blow fish, rays like electric rays, skates, three varieties of sole fish, fire fish, sepia, octopus and eels. The rays and skates are endangered species listed in Schedule-I category under the Wild Life Protection Act. While some of the common fishes included silver biddy, bull's eye, needle fish, snapper, spike fish, butter fish, laligo, moon fish and barbs. One of the rare catches was a six feet long eel. According to experts, this was a very unusually catch. “In the past two decades, such a large variety of fishes was never spotted in shoreline fishing.
Many of these species that were caught are deep sea fish and not found near the shore,” Prof. B. Bharatha Lakshmi of the Department of Zoology, Andhra University told The Hindu . Researchers and marine biologists attribute the reason behind this to changes in ocean currents due to which marine species get disoriented and move near the shore.