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

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

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]

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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.
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