Identify these fish November 6, 2004
Posted by Andy Roberts in : hi res photos, wildlife , trackback
They seemed to have got stuck in a corner between the harbour and the seawall, or else were attracted by something. I’ve never seen so many fish all together, and right next to the shore. They thrashed about amongst each other, not acting as a shoal, some jumped out of the water a little but they showed no signs of moving on back out to the open sea. From the top of harbour wall looking down, they looked about half a metre long, with just a few bigger ones about 0.8m, coloured dark grey or with lighter undersides. The camera reveals a little more than the naked eye, showing a body shape which makes me think of shark.
The mouth and head on the other hand are more like catfish.
is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
Hi Andy. The fishes you saw I think I know what are they. In Basque we call them “Lazunak” and in Spanish the name is “Muble”, they are the most common fish in our, sometimes, poluted rivers. By the way, I can see you are visiting all the places we sugested to you in that crazy “ginatxt”
Igor - thanks for this! Trust the Basque country to have a special species of fish, unrelated to any other with a curious independent behaviour
Google fails to translate Muble and google.es doesn’t offer much help either so I’m nuch much wiser although the fact that they are river fish goes a long way to explaining why they were stuck outside the harbour wall, trying to get back through to the river perhaps.
Elantxobe and Leketio were both well worth the detour, although a bit sleepy at this time of year - apart from the building works going on at Leketio. My lasting memory is that Bermeo is the more friendly and lively place and the coastline at Bakio is very special.
Hi Andy, again. Another name in Spanish for these fishes can be “Corcon” (confusing, isn’t it?). About the coastline in Bizkaia… Bermeo is very vivid, indeed; Gaztelugatxe ermit is amazing; Ea and Elantxobe, lovely and “picturesque” (sounds horrible to me this adjective but…); Lekeitio with a true fishing harbour (the Geese Festival the 5th of September is spectacular); Ondarroa is not a very touristical place but has a strong personality (the Blue Saturday in June is vibrant) and Mutriku, already in Gipuzkoa province, is the only one town without river I know and has very-very steep streets! And the most enjoyable point in all these towns is the amazingly richness of local dialects of Basque language (remember that the oldest language in Europe has seven completelly different dialects in less that 200 kms!!… for example, “dog” in Ondarroa is “txakurra” and in Mutriku, just 4 kms away, is “ora”, a totally different word!). To be continued.
Oh man, what have I started?? None of us now will be able to escape…
Aha, the word “corcon” leads us onwards. google.es gives 300 or so sites, including an Australian who invented corrugate concrete whatver that is.
But this one gives an english translation
http://www.animalesmarinos.com/corcon.htm
So, thick lipped grey mullet then.
But I’m still not convinced about the body shape.
They look too big to be grey mullet and the shape is wrong. I’m not at all convinced.
On further consultation with Igor I have learnt 2 things 1. They are grey mullet and 2. Never argue with a Basque person
I am now totally convinced Igor!