Under the Sea???

  Mark and I have been on the pier every morning and then again every evening.  While he throws the net to catch shrimp, I man the reels.  Our catches have been great!  We are getting enough shrimp to put in the freezer and enough fish to share with those who cannot get fresh seafood.  He and I have decided that the Good Lord knows that we are wanting to share so He gives us what we need.  Amazing how that works, isn't it?

  One of the things that has always fascinated me about shrimping is all of the oddities that seem to get caught up in the school of shrimp.  We never know what might be hauled in with a good throw of the net. Besides the shrimp, we catch a lot of menhaden, Sandfish, mullet, gobies, puffer fish and an occasional oyster-cracker fish.  Yesterday, however, when Mark dumped the contents of the net in the tub, a sort of creepy looking fish stared back at me.  Hmmm?  Did I want to just grab this little guy or did I need the scoop net?  The fish had a head full of spines, wings and "legs"! The spines are a protective feature while the wings actually help the fish to glide through the water.  The "legs" are not legs at all but more "sensors" that help the "feel" what is in the mud.  Yep, that is one weird looking critter!  I carefully picked him up by the tail and slid him back into the water.  The little guy was a Sea Robin.  The fish is quite scary looking with its armored plates, spines and huge mouth!  Nightmares could be conjured by just coming in contact with this critter!  Supposedly, the Sea Robin is edible if you can get past eating something that resembles some alien that has dropped into the water.  I am not sure that I am hungry enough to try.

  Seeing things like this makes one wonder just what all is under that water?  The waters around the Bayou are murky and muddy so it is nigh on impossible to view what is swimming about under the surface.  Just this week, we have pulled more oddities out from the water than I care to ponder.  Oh...and the stingrays are in the Bay.  Yep, caught those as well.