272 UNDERWATER GUIDE TO MARINE LIFE 



just beneath the eye on the cheek. This is one of the largest and most varied 

 of all fish groups and its members are prominent in all seas from arctic to tropical, 

 but they are most numerous and varied in cold temperate to arctic waters. 



ROCKFISHES AND SCORPION FISHES: Family Scorpaenidae 



This is one of the largest of fish families with 250 species. We shall consider 

 this family as a series starting with the least spiny rockfishes, proceeding through 

 the spiny rockfishes, and terminating with the most spiny and bizarre member 

 of the family in our waters, the scorpion fish. The rockfishes are found in great 

 profusion on our Pacific Coast, where they form the largest single group of fishes 

 of over fifty species. Only the common, shallow-water species are included here. 

 Most rockfish get in quite deep waters. There is a decided tendency for 

 rockfishes to become red in deep water and to remain on the bottom among 

 rocks, where they are able to ambush the smaller fishes and invertebrates on 

 which they feed. Most of them are ovoviviparous. The rockfishes look very much 

 like moderate-sized basses, but the fin spines are stouter, and the heads are bonier, 

 spinier, and rougher than in basses. The most advanced species in the family, 

 the tropical scorpion fishes are extremely bizarrely marked, very spiny-headed 

 fishes. They have lost the swim bladder in response to their exclusively bottom- 

 living habits. Their habit of lying concealed in rocks and their excellent 

 protective coloration make them difficult to see in reefs. Add to this the fact that 

 their dorsal spines are virulently poisonous, and it is not so hard to see that here 

 are formidable fishes, indeed. 



Three species of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, the black nohu, 

 Emmydrichthys, the lionfish, Pterois, and above all the stonefish, Synanceja, are 

 especially dangerous. Their dorsal spines convey a principally neurotoxic poison 

 which causes the most extreme and excruciating pain, the result of which is 

 often delirium and death. Scientifically trained persons have been "stung" by 

 these fish and have accurately recorded the effects. Such tales are trulv horrible. 

 One of them is given by Smith (1951). He was pricked by two of the dorsal 

 spines in his thumb. Seconds later he felt severe shooting pains up his arm to 

 his neck. Using snake-bite treatment, he cut across the wounds, sucked them 

 vigorously to remove what poison he could, and bound off the thumb from the 

 rest of the body. Five minutes after the puncture, a pain of "an intensity never 

 before experienced" spread over his hand. A very short time later, he was shaken 

 with spasms and experienced "an insane desire to ease the mounting agony by 

 rolling on the ground." This pain persisted for three and a half hours, after which 

 time immersion in hot water was tried. "The effect was dramatic. The agonv 

 diminished rapidly to bearable proportions, and I returned to normal conscious- 

 ness and unquenchable thirst." The thumb turned black that day and was 

 without sensation. The next day large yellow blisters formed and, when 

 punctured, drained for six days and were very painful. The swelling reached 

 a maximum the third day after the wound. Penicillin was injected and probably 

 saved his thumb by reducing the blistering and the possibility of infection. A 

 month later, the black portions of the thumb fell away. Eighty days after the 

 stab the hand was weak and the thumb still swollen and painful. The poison 

 had a detrimental effect on Smith's health. Smith had previously been stung 

 by an eagle ray and puts the stonefish "in a class by itself." It is fortunate that 

 North American scorpion fishes arc not as dangerous as the stonefish. 



