The attentive father is ‘ coughing ’ to jet water from his gill covers over the eggs
CRITTER CONFIDENTIAL
Lumpsucker
Cyclopterus lumpus
Paul Naylor enjoys a rare encounter with a deep water fish that favours the delights of Whitley Bay in North Tyneside
Another Whitley Bay father on duty … this shanny was in a rocky hole right by our entry point for the dive
I
come across these wonderfully eccentriclooking fish relatively rarely . While records show they can be found all around the British Isles , sightings do seem to be most common in the north and my most recent one was indeed on a trip to Whitley Bay near Newcastle last June .
A guidebook on local shore diving that I had squirrelled away but not used for many years actually mentioned lumpsuckers as one of the regular sights , but I was still somehow amazed to meet one face-toface . We were only a few fin strokes from the rocky entry point , swimming out over shallow kelp and there it was , in a hollow below us .
A quick look at the lumpsucker ’ s surroundings confirmed it was engaged in the task that most of them are when seen in the shallows . These fish spend most of their time in deep water , but come in close to shore in the spring to breed . The female
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