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Sea robin: the Europeans call them 'gurnard,' and yep, you can eat them

Kevin Bryant goo.gl/oVnoVb
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Sea robin trying to look like nothing you would want to eat.

Around the Cape and Islands there’s no shortage of great fish to go for, but there's one fish that doesn’t get a lot of respect. It’s the sea robin.  Maybe that's because it's the only local fish that makes a croak of protest when you pull it from the water (we've got the audio).

"It's a very cool looking fish," says Kevin Blinkoff, of On The Water magazine. "It's reddish-brown, yellow, and orange. And probably most remarkable, they have these huge, wing-like pectoral fins." 

They're typically considered a trash fish, caught by accident while fishermen are going for sea bass, scup or fluke. But Blinkoff says, "The truth is, sea robins are actually very good eating. There are a lot of related species in Europe called gurnard that are actually highly valued food fish."

We've got tips on how to cook them. Give it a listen. 

[This week's Fishing News is a rebroadcast from 2017]

Steve is Managing Editor of News. He came to WCAI in 2007. He also hosts the weekly News Roundup on Friday mornings and produces The Fishing News.