{"id":7876,"date":"2015-08-31T12:55:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T16:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/?p=7876"},"modified":"2015-08-31T12:55:05","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T16:55:05","slug":"a-fish-in-a-plain-brown-wrapper-and-its-potential-impact-on-maines-lobster-fishery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/2015\/08\/31\/a-fish-in-a-plain-brown-wrapper-and-its-potential-impact-on-maines-lobster-fishery\/","title":{"rendered":"A fish in a plain brown wrapper and its potential impact on Maine&#8217;s lobster fishery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By JOE RANKIN<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry\">\n<figure id=\"4592\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2014\/05\/cusk.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-4592\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2014\/05\/cusk.jpg\" alt=\"Cusk. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration\" width=\"275\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2014\/05\/cusk.jpg 275w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/293\/2014\/05\/cusk-105x65.jpg 105w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,275px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cusk. Credit: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The cusk isn\u2019t going to win any piscine beauty contests. It\u2019s no colorful clownfish, sleek tuna, mighty sailfish, or even a silvery sardine.<\/p>\n<p>It looks like a cross between a catfish and an eel. Big flattish head. Little barbell on its chin. A single dorsal fin and a single long anal fin. A fish in a plain brown wrapper \u2014 smooth skin with tiny scales, brownish or grayish. Even its name, cusk, has kind of a harshness to it.<\/p>\n<p>By the time Jocelyn Runnebaum sees them, cusk are looking decidedly the worse for wear \u2014 their stomachs are protruding from their mouths, eyes are bulging out, skin is bubbled, bellies are bloated. All thanks to an express elevator ride from ocean bottom to surface in a lobster trap where they had inadvertently taken refuge. The trauma is caused when the air in their swim bladder expands as the pressure decreases. It\u2019s kind of a fish version of the bends.<\/p>\n<p>Cusk, <em>Brosme brosme<\/em>, is the only species in its genus. It is one species commonly caught as bycatch, or non-target species, in deeper waters in Maine\u2019s lobster fishery. At the same time, the fish is not common and not that well understood. It is listed as a Species of Concern by the National Marine Fisheries Service, and is under NMFS status review for listing under the Endangered Species Act.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/news\/news-2\/a-fish-in-a-plain-brown-wrapper-and-its-potential-impact-on-maines-lobster-fishery\/\">See more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By JOE RANKIN The cusk isn\u2019t going to win any piscine beauty contests. It\u2019s no colorful clownfish, sleek tuna, mighty sailfish, or even a silvery sardine. It looks like a cross between a catfish and an eel. Big flattish head. Little barbell on its chin. A single dorsal fin and a single long anal fin. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":957,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","spc_primary_category":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":3,"label":"News"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"mitchellcenter","author_link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/author\/mitchellcenter\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":3,"name":"News","slug":"news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":3,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":613,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":3,"category_count":613,"category_description":"","cat_name":"News","category_nicename":"news","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/957"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/mitchellcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}