Wednesday, November 06, 2024

Puffer Fish (mis-)adventure

There are often a number of people fishing at the Hung Hom pier.  


Today, around 2:30 pm, in broad day light, one of them caught a puffer fish.  A pretty big one.  Bigger than an adult man’s palm. The hook was deep inside the fish’s mouth.  



The man who caught it decided to just cut the line instead of trying to recover the hook.  


At first, the fish thrashed around a bit.  Perhaps trying to get back into the water.  



After a couple of minutes, probably realised that it was not getting anywhere.  It suddenly started to inflate.  The man said it was getting angry.  In a matter of seconds, it turned into balloon.  And it turned upside down, because its inflated belly is now lighter than its body.  



The man threw it back into the water.  It floated upside down for a minute or so. 



Suddenly, it decided to deflate.  Again, in a matter of seconds, it was completely deflated, returned to its original shape, righted itself, dived into deep water, and disappeared.  



It hope it survives, with a hook in its tummy. 


This is not the first time something like this happened.  But the first time I witness the complete adventure.  Perhaps misadventure, from the perspective of the puffer fish. 






No comments: