A service of Salisbury University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Moonfish May Have Been Caught Off Ocean City

noaa

OCEAN CITY, Md. (AP) - A Maryland fishing party may have made a rare catch- a 105-pound (47-kilogram) opah, or moonfish.
 
Local news outlets report Capt. Austin Ensor and his three crew members set sail Sunday and are believed to have caught the moonfish off Ocean City.
 
Ensor says they had just caught an 80-pound (36-kilogram) swordfish when the fish grabbed their bait. After over an hour, they reeled it in.
 
According to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the moonfish can be found in open waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but catching one is rare off the East Coast.
 
Gregg Bortz with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources says the department cannot currently confirm the catch or if it was the first time an opah had been caught in Maryland.

 

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.