Northern stargazer

A fish that watches the stars

The northern stargazer owes its name to the position of its eyes: they sit on top of a large, flat, boxy head and face upward, as if it were gazing at the sky. Its mouth too points upward, often fringed with small skin flaps. The body is stout, elongated and flattened, an anatomical design perfect for a life spent buried in the sandy seabed. It can reach around fifty centimetres in length.

Habitat and distribution

It lives along the Atlantic coasts of the eastern United States, between North Carolina and New York, on sandy bottoms down to about a hundred metres deep. It can be told from its southern sister species by the numerous small, closely spaced white spots dotting its head and back.

Hunting and electric defence

It is an ambush predator: it buries itself leaving only its eyes and mouth exposed, then waits motionless for fish and crustaceans to pass overhead, sucking them in with a sudden gulp. Its most remarkable weapon is electricity: behind its eyes it has electric organs modified from the eye muscles, able to produce shocks used to stun prey and for defence. It is one of the very few marine fish able to generate current.

Curiosities

The combination of camouflage, electric ability and suction mouth makes it a nearly invisible, deadly hunter. It is considered good eating, but is rarely caught precisely because of its hidden life.

Conservation

The IUCN lists the species as Least Concern: it is relatively common within its range and is not considered threatened.