The Oyster Toadfish, or "Opsanus tau" is a local addition to our array of celebrated creatures of the "Ugly Animal Kingdom" Ranging from Maine to the West Indies. I can personally vouch for it's ubiquitous presence in the tidal waters of Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. They will eat just about anything, and are frequenters of underwater garbage dumps as well as oyster and clam beds.
With venomous dorsal spines, and a jaw strong enough to crush an oyster or clam shell, the Oyster Toadfish, or Oyster Cracker, is a hostile and formidable opponent when accidentally encountered on the end of a fishing line or in a crab trap. I am still emotionally scarred from an encounter that involved catching one while fishing as a kid. The Oyster Cracker in question had an unbreakable hold on my lure, with jaws certain to snap my nine year old index finger in two, and emanating an angry croaking noise that totally freaked out my also-nine-years-old fishing companions. My neighbor Jimmy bashed the ever-loving hell out of the specimen with a two-by-four, leaving a brown and red fishy smear on the dock and a comparable smear on my child mind.
Remarkably, the Oyster Toadfish has traveled to "outer space", brought on the Shuttle to study the effects of microgravity on the vestibular system, or equlibrium and balance. To read more about the research program, check here.
To hear the sound of the oyster toadfish and it's foghorn-like mating call, check out the recording of the Eastern Carolina University Sciaenid Acoustics Research Team.
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Your a plain and simple murderer.that toadfish didn't deserve to die .you did
Wow, my first ybnby death threat. Scaramouch-do we keep a running tally on these? John-I assure you, I would have been very happy to have released the fish back to it's muddy home-I was quite traumatized by the experience of witnessing its demise. However, I do generally consider myself a "catch and eat" fisherwoman when the right fish bites the line.
Sounds like John needs a little "catch and release" himself.