Northern Europe’s most gifted fish species has been discovered in large numbers along the Sørland coast.
(Fædrelandsvennen): – The quantities we have found her now are absolutely incredible, says the renowned species fisherman and the blogger Asgeir Alvestad to The Friend of the Fatherland.
He has recently caught around 30 dwarf faces on the hook along the beaches at Sjøsanden in Mandal. Some of them all the way inside 20 centimeters of shallow water.
The fish is considered to be the most gifted fish species in Northern Europe.
– I would like to believe that Sjøsanden and the surrounding beaches are epicentered, but the chance that it is located elsewhere in Sørlandet is relatively high, he says and adds:
– It does not get much larger than 12–14 centimeters, and has slightly different colors than the usual face. At the same time, it has a cocktail of gift in the spikes, which can do great harm.
It was TV 2 as first mentioned case.
More poisonous than a viper bite
Municipal chief physician in Lindesnes, Viggo Lutcherath, says a sting from the dwarf face is characterized as more poisonous than being bitten by a viper.
– It’s quite toxic then. It is very rare that it takes life, I understand. It is still incredibly painful and causes severe swelling, says the municipal chief.
The dwarf face has several spikes along the dorsal fin and the fin above the head.
The common reason for being stung is that people step on the fish that hide under the sand during the day.
– This is not something that we want to get, but it may be a consequence of us getting a warmer climate, says Lutcherath.
He now says that people must take their precautions when bathing and risk encountering it – among other things when using bathing shoes.
The municipal chief has notified the Institute of Marine Research and the state administrator for a survey of the extent along the coast in Sørlandet.
Harmful to the tourism industry
As the fish is so poisonous, species fisherman Alvestad believes that it is harmful to the tourism industry when discovered further south in Europe.
He does not think that it is something that can be done to reach the southern coast.
– The dwarf faces I have been given a size that indicates that they are over five years old – so they have probably been here for a while already and multiplied several times, says Alvestad.
He points out that in two fishing days he got more dwarf faces than what is discovered in Denmark in one year.
Now he is used to how widespread it turns out to be.
On its own blog Alvestad describes the findings as a sensation.
In an earlier version of this case, a person who had been injured by a dwarf face was also interviewed. It has been removed at the request of the person.
