The northern stargazer: A fish that lives under the sand and packs a punch

A friend of mine, Tom Testaverde, who is captain of the fishing vessel Midnight Sun, recently sent me a photo of a fish he caught in his net while fishing for squid near Rhode Island.

I honestly had no idea what it was, but I got out my trusty “Fishes of the Gulf of Maine” by Bigelow and Schroeder and began a search for this odd-looking fish.

First, I could see that it was slimy and did not have scales. It also had huge pectoral fins that looked more like paddle-shaped feet. You couldn’t ignore the huge, wide mouth that tipped up with what appeared to be an underbite and tiny eyes. This is not a fish I had ever seen before, and I wish he had brought it in so we could have had a closer look.

I had initially identified this fish as a northern oyster toadfish, but based on a correction from a reader, it’s a northern stargazer. This is what can happen when you attempt to identify something from a photograph.

Northern stargazers are not normally found as far north as Rhode Island. These fish are found in the coastal waters from North Carolina to New York. None of the local fishermen had ever seen a stargazer before.

Like oyster toadfish, stargazers have no scales and are covered with slimy skin. They also have a large head and wide mouth. Their lower jaw is larger than the upper jaw, and they have lots of teeth. This may be where the resemblance ends. Stargazers have tiny eyes on the top of their heads that appear to be looking up, a body covered with tiny white spots, and three black stripes on their tails.

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Stargazers lay their eggs on the ocean floor. The eggs slowly float to the surface and eventually hatch into larval stages. When the egg sack is absorbed, they look like normal fish with eyes on the sides of their head. Sinking to the bottom, where their eyes begin to migrate from the side of their head to the top, they begin to look like adult fish. This juvenile stage is spent close to shore until they reach about a foot in length when they swim offshore. At that time, amazingly, the stargazer begins to develop specialized lobes behind their eyes which will produce a mild electrical charge. As adults, they use this charge to protect themselves and confuse predators.

Fortunately for Tom, the electrical charge would have been expended while the fish was in the net. Otherwise, the crew may have had a nasty tingle when they handled it.

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Stargazers are normally found in coastal waters down to 120 feet and can run up to 20 pounds and 22 inches long. They spend their life almost completely buried in the sand, waiting for unsuspecting prey, mainly small fish and crustaceans. Using their huge pectoral fins like a shovel, they dig into the sandy/muddy bottom in seconds, burying themselves under the sediment. Their body has adapted to this behavior with flaps of skin over their nostrils and fleshy comb-like protrusions over their mouth, protecting them from being clogged with sand. They “breathe” by pulling water into their nostrils, absorbing the oxygen while passing the water through their gills, which are small and tube-like.

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The tubed gills disperse the water out into the sand. The only part of their anatomy that is above the ocean floor is their eyes and nostrils, the perfect camouflage. For very short periods, they can extend their eyes by inflating a sac of fluid behind their eyes to see above the sandy bottom. They patiently await prey and create such a vacuum with their mouth that the prey is sucked in and swallowed whole.

The northern stargazer has a unique body and lifestyle, similar to the oyster toadfish. However, unlike the toadfish, the stargazer has adapted to living below the ocean floor, lying in wait for dinner to swim by. It also has added protection of an electrical charge to ward off any predators that might try to eat it.

I am not sure if I want to see this fish in action. It could be the stuff of nightmares. On the other hand, it reminds me why I was drawn to study the oceans. The incredible range of marine animal adaptations never ceases to amaze and fascinate me.

Ellen Goethel is a marine biologist and the owner of Explore the Ocean World at 367 Ocean Blvd. at Hampton Beach.