CURB Catches Rare Hudson River Fish

During a recent seine with CURB’s staff and interns, the team caught a flatfish that at first appeared to be a summer flounder, a relatively common catch for our location. However, upon taking a closer look at the fish it became apparent that this was not a flounder. It was missing a pectoral fin, a key characteristic present in flounder. So what exactly did we catch in our net?

After doing some research with the help of fish keys, we determined that this was a type of tonguefish, a rare catch in the Hudson River. According to Tom Lake of the NYS DEC, the only other tonguefish sampled in the river were two Northern Tonguefish back in 1994 at Irvington-on-Hudson, as well as two more that were caught earlier this summer near the Tappan Zee Bridge. Still, there was some uncertainty if our fish, as well as the two caught by the Tappan Zee, were actually Northern Tonguefish.

In order to get a clearer picture of their ID, the tonguefish were sent to Dr. Bob Schmidt of Bard College at Simon’s Rock. After further analysis it was determined that these three fish were actually Blackcheek Tonguefish, a new species in the Hudson River. In addition, staff from the DEC caught a fourth Blackcheek Tonguefish from our beach during a teacher training.

Blackcheek Tonguefish range from New York to the Bahamas, as well as the Gulf of Mexico to Panama. They prefer shallow coastal waters and estuaries, and can grow up to 7.5 inches in length. Their diet consists of primarily plant matter and small invertebrates. Blackcheek Tonguefish may be identified by a dark patch of color near the gill plate, as seen in the picture above.