Rare fish in Panama City,Fl

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
B

Bricball

Feeder Fish
Mar 5, 2008
3
0
0
Indianapolis
I was just surfing the net and came across a local news channel in Panama City Beach, Fla. that covered a story of 2 guys catching a rare fish in the bay. The channel mentioned that the species is usually found in South America in the Pacific Ocean. They called it a Levar(spelling ?).
The gentlemen claimed that the fish was floating injured after being hit by a boat. The caught it and then it died. Claimed to have retrieved 200lbs of fillets from the fish.
Has anyone ever hear of such a fish. I have tried to research the name with several different spellings and have come up with ZERO.
I am interested in the story, as I am an avid fish, marine life enthusiast.

I came here and registered with the hopes of some experts to have the answer. Thanks!!
 
Bricball;1578947; said:
I was just surfing the net and came across a local news channel in Panama City Beach, Fla. that covered a story of 2 guys catching a rare fish in the bay. The channel mentioned that the species is usually found in South America in the Pacific Ocean. They called it a Levar(spelling ?).
The gentlemen claimed that the fish was floating injured after being hit by a boat. The caught it and then it died. Claimed to have retrieved 200lbs of fillets from the fish.
Has anyone ever hear of such a fish. I have tried to research the name with several different spellings and have come up with ZERO.
I am interested in the story, as I am an avid fish, marine life enthusiast.

I came here and registered with the hopes of some experts to have the answer. Thanks!!
Click to expand...


Well I found this article http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/16167262.html, and it's spelled Luvar.

Fishbase pulls up this http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary.cfm?Family=Luvaridae

Here's an australian site on one species.
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/limperialis.htm

I don't personally know anything about these fish, this is just what gathered by searching. If your post is moved to the saltwater section you may get more answers.
 
Well, if it's a luvar, then the media must not be very smart (scratch that... they are pretty dumb).

The luvar's range is in pretty much all of the oceans except for the arctic and the southern parts near antartica. It reaches as far north as the United Kingdom. It's not rare.

Here's a map of it's range. Florida is in the red zone. (meaning that they are common there)

pic_Fis-30255.jpg

probability1.gif

(From Fishbase)
 
yea, but they might be able to venture out into brackish water. (they caught the fish in the bay)

If they say it's "rare" I'd think that it was an aquarium release or something.
 
that bay is super salty.
 
meepster;1583405; said:
Well, if it's a luvar, then the media must not be very smart (scratch that... they are pretty dumb).

The luvar's range is in pretty much all of the oceans except for the arctic and the southern parts near antartica. It reaches as far north as the United Kingdom. It's not rare.

Here's a map of it's range. Florida is in the red zone. (meaning that they are common there)
Click to expand...

That maps showing relative abundance, so if there were four left in the world, all the map says is that they would most likely be found in the red zones, but may be in the yellow.

I think the rarity part of the statement is for anglers more than anything. They are large, solitary, palegic ocean fish that eat jellyfish. For those reasons, people probably barely ever hook them. I've been fishing the Gulf off of Texas my whole life and have never caught one, let alone heard of one. So if I hooked one, it would definitely be rare to me. I've also worked with endangered riverine fish that are endangered and "rare," but are thicker than fleas on a dog's back if you know where to look...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom