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In this beautiful dive we met many specimens of Red scorpionfish, Scorpaena scrofa, and these that we see in the video are particularly large, almost a meter long.
Red scorpionfish – Scorpaena scrofa – Scorfano rosso – www.intotheblue.it
This species is typical of the Mediterranean Sea and we have met them at a depth of 52/53 meters in what would be their ideal habitat, i.e. the typical coralline seabed full of holes and ravines where Gorgonians and sponges thrive on which they settle perch waiting to launch some ambush to fish like the red damselfish.
However, these habitats are now to be considered an exception as well as the red scorpionfish of this size, this species is in fact overfished with nets and trammel nets that we could consider a fishing technique that is still sustainable compared to bottom trawling.
Red scorpionfish – Scorpaena scrofa – Scorfano rosso – www.intotheblue.it
Imagine the passage of a trawl net on such a reef full of corals and gorgonians like these in the video of the Paramuricea clavata species, even 1 and a half meters high. In a few moments, an ecosystem that took hundreds and perhaps even thousands of years to reach such a balance is destroyed. So we do not want fishermen but the ban on trawling is welcome, a very current debate in the European Parliament, for fishing carried out with other techniques that are certainly more sustainable, and above all the protected marine areas for the protection of the marine ecosystem.
Red scorpionfish – Scorpaena scrofa – Scorfano rosso – www.intotheblue.it
Scorpion fish (Scorpaena scrofa Linnaeus, 1758) is a family of fish Scorpaenidae. Scorfano Rosso Scorpaena scrofa Scorpaenidae Red Scorpion fish
Distribution and habitat
It is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic, from the British Isles, to Morocco, the Canary Islands, the Azores and the Mediterranean Sea. He lives on hard, rocky or coral reefs, usually at a depth of over 20 m (up to 200 m) although the young may be incurred in shallower water. It has a fondness for dry rocky that rise from a muddy bottom.
Red scorpionfish – Scorpaena scrofa – Scorfano rosso – www.intotheblue.it
Description
It is recognized by all other Scorpaena for fleshy appendages on the chin, no other species has. There is also an enlarged appendix eye. The rest is similar to the other grouper, with massive head (perhaps in greater proportion than in congeners) spiny and covered with skin tags. The color is generally bright red but can also occur pink, brown or yellow sulfur, variegated dark in various ways and, in general, with a black spot in the center of the dorsal fin. It reaches 50 cm in length.
Red scorpionfish – Scorpaena scrofa – Scorfano rosso – www.intotheblue.it
Biology
It spends most of property downtime in a raised point waiting for a prey in front of the steps.
Fishing
You can capture both by line and with longlines or trawls. The meats are very appreciated and used mainly in various broths and fish soups. It is, for example, an ingredient required to prepare some dishes such as fish soup Livornese or bouillabaisse in Marseille.
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