Bohol Island News Staff | Posted on Aug. 19, 2020
After a 6.6 magnitude earthquake jolted the Visayas areas on Tuesday morning, August 18, some fishermen from Barangay Sta. Monica in Oras, Eastern Samar caught an “opah” or moonfish.
Ranilo Ebron shared several images of this fish on his social media account.
According to him, the fish was caught by some fishermen in their area.
Scientists say a deep-sea fish like moonfish lives near active faults. Thus, it developed greater sensitivity to chemical changes in the water before an earthquake occurs.
According to a 2015 article published on National Geographic, there’s little details about this fish since they mostly live in deep parts of the Pacific ocean.
Often, fishermen can catch this fish when they go commercial tuna and swordfish fishing.
Owyn Snodgrass, a fisheries biologist with NOAA Southwest Fisheries, was quoted in the report in saying this type of fish “can be valuable commodities on the seafood market”.
The 2012 Hawaiian opah market was valued at around $3 million.
“Opah are unusual in that different parts of their body look and taste different, the biologist explains. The upper part of the fish looks like tuna and tastes like a cross between tuna and salmon, he says. But their pectoral muscles—the ones that power the fins on the side of the body—look and taste a bit like beef,” the report said.
