A "very rare" venomous deepwater fish has been caught near one of the UK’s worst sewage-polluted beaches in Merseyside.
Steven Mayes was fishing off the coast of north Wirral at 4:30am near New Brighton on May 6 when he caught what he believes is a bluemouth rockfish, a small predatory fish often seen between 150 and 400 metres under the sea and sometimes as deep as 1,000m.
Though the rockfish is common in deeper water, experts said it was unusual to see it so close to shore. In fact, according to British Sea Fishing, there is no record of the bluemouth rockfish being caught from the shore in the UK.
