A "very rare" venomous deep water fish normally found between 150m and 400m down has been found near a beach by a surprised angler. Steven Mayes was fishing early in the morning when he saw what he believes was a bluemouth rockfish.
It is a small predatory fish that normally favours deep water, sometimes as deep as 1,000m. Experts say while it's common in the depths, it's unusual to see it 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.
But that has now changed. Mr Mayes was fishing near New Brighton, north Wirral, Merseyside, at 4.30am on May 6 when he caught the fish. He said he then walked out into the water as far as he could go to release it, but it kept swimming back in.
