In Search Of Those Elusive Trumpetfish

“Very rare.” Hardly ever seen.” These are the general responses we got when we asked the La Palma locals about the Atlantic Trumpetfish.  Responses that were almost universally accompanied by shakes of the head, shoulder shrugs and more statements like: “if you get real lucky you might see one in the early morning” or “They can change colour you know, blend in, and in these waters you could swim right by one and never know.”

Now, we know that the Atlantic Trumpetfish do exist. We’ve seen images of them on television, we’ve seen photographs of them on the Web and we had heard that La Palma and the Canary Islands in general, were a good place to see these odd fish. Now however, we were beginning to think that the Atlantic Trumpetfish was something out of an episode of the X-files. A strange mythological creature that an overexcited Mulder believes exists, yet simply can’t find the evidence to prove it to a pouting, doubtful, Scully. Undaunted by the locals insistence that we were more likely to spot a U.F.O than a Trumpetfish, we began to formulate a plan to catch the camera shy critters on film.

Ok Mulder, it's a naked girl doing weird things with a trumpet! But how does that prove anything?

The Atlantic Trumpetfish is a cylindrical shaped fish that can grow up to a metre long. Closely related to pipefish and seahorses, it uses its long snout like a vacuum cleaner, easily sucking in its prey of small fish and invertebrates. Some Trumpetfish in South Africa and the Caribbean have been observed using shadow-stalking behaviour to hunt, using their narrow profile to hide behind larger browsing feeders like Parrotfish and Surgeonfish, surprising unsuspecting prey who drift too close to the benign browser. The Trumpetfish’s notorious shyness and ability to blend in with their environment would, of course, present a significant problem to our goal as would the locals honest assessment of the Islands waters. Sitting in the Atlantic, and battered by the strong trade wins the coastal waters of La Palma are often dark, rough and murky. So in grey, wind-lashed seas famous for strong currents, we would be trying to spot a thin, agile fish that can blend effortlessly into the background and has a reputation for being shyer than mating pandas. A bit of a tall order you’ll agree. We decided that the best chances of seeing these fish would be to enter the water in the very early hours of the morning or late in the evening when the waters were bereft of splashing swimmers and small fishing boats with their chuttering motors.

 

Chinese Trumpetfish

Our sad effort to capture an Atlantic Trumpetfish - the buggers are fast

Did we succeed in our quest? You bet we did. The rough waters hampered filming considerably, as did the poor visibility. This was further compounded by the Trumpetfish’s irritating habit of disappearing between the rocks. Still we’re pretty pleased with the result, particularly as we came across three Trumpetfish gathered together near the breakwaters of Los Cancajos beach – though only for a few seconds. Check out the film below for the results of our labours. Trumpetfish do exist Scully, they do, we filmed them!