From the comfort of my couch.

This post has nothing to do with the Couch’s seabream I caught last week. I was supposed to be on the Greek Island of Rhodes today with my girlfriend Lillian, but due to the Air Traffic Control chaos yesterday, our flight got cancelled, and I’m sitting on my couch in my Edinburgh flat, writing this!

A couple of days ago, fellow Edinburgh based species hunter Luca sent me a link to this interesting scientific paper discussing the Labrisomus species of the Atlantic Ocean. One of its conclusions was that the members of this group found around the Eastern Atlantic, including the Canary Islands are a distinct species. Previously thought to be the hairy blenny (Labrisomus nuchipinnis) which are found on the other side of the Atlantic, they have been revalidated as the scaly blenny (Labrisomus canariensis). This means I’ve added a species to my lifelist, without having to actually go fishing.

Above are some of the scaly blenny (Labrisomus canariensis) I've caught on the Canary Islands of Lanzarote, Fuertaventura and Gran Canaria over the last decade.

Below are two species of Labrinomus I caught in Miami, Florida a couple of years ago. I’m fairly confident I’ve identified them both correctly, but I’d welcome any comments on that, especially given the contents of the scientific paper. 

I believe this is a hairy blenny (Labrisomus nuchipinnis).

I think this is a masquerader hairy blenny (Labrisomus conditus).

Luckily, we managed to get ourselves on a flight to Rhodes tomorrow and whilst the cancelled flight yesterday has cut our holiday down from nine days to a week, I’m hopeful we’ll get there tomorrow without issue and I’ll be able to enjoy some fishing. Sitting on my couch writing about species identification is interesting, and a new species is always welcome, but I’d much rather be fishing for them in the sun!

Tight lines, Scott.