Always something new - A Fascination for Fish: Adventures of an Underwater Pioneer - page 247

A finespotted jawfish pair, with the male carefully carrying his
mouthful of precious eggs. (Photo courtesy Tokyo Sea Life Park, Rie
Masho)
The first stop for the collectors was Bahía de la Concepción, where
they hoped to collect spotted jawfish—a high priority because we were
devoting an entire exhibit tank to them. The location was a bit of a
gamble, since none of us had collected this species here before, but we
knew the bay was well within the fish's range, so chances, we thought,
were good.
Upon arrival, John, Randy Hamilton, Gilbert, and Randy Wilder
swam out from shore with scuba gear and their hand nets and plastic
bags. Each carried a short monofilament leader attached to a small,
barbless, unbaited fishhook. After much swimming and searching, they
finally located a number of jawfish burrows, with their characteristic
ring of shells and pebbles around the entrance. Randy Wilder dropped
his hook down the burrow the same way I'd collected blue-spotted
jawfish many years before. When the fish grabbed the hook to toss it
out of its burrow, it was a simple matter to set the hook and pull the
jawfish out and into a plastic bag. In this manner, several spotted jawfish
were soon collected.