One of the common inshore
species is this one, Notothenia neglecta, the subject
of my particular studies. It was sometimes called
"Antarctic Cod", but then I've seen that label attached to
several other Antarctic fish species. With no native human
population and a fish population that is pretty much totally
unique to Antarctica, very few Antarctic fish actually have
anything like a common name. The people who deal with them
with any regularity are scientists rather than fishmongers
as it would be anywhere else in the world.
The result is that Antarctic
fish tend only to have a Latin name. For reason I have never
been able to fully understand this can greatly irritate some
people. The conversation goes something like this:
"So what kind of fish
did you catch out there?"
me - "Quite a few types"
"Like what?"
me - (ok here we go again) "They didn't really
have common names, just scientific ones"
"Like what?"
me - (I know where this is going) "Notothenia
neglecta, Chaenocephalus aceratus,
Trematomus
bernachii, Champsocephalus gunnari"
"Well that means nothing to me! Didn't they have proper
names?"
me - "Well you could call them Antarctic Cod, or
Icefish"
"Oh that makes more sense, I can imagine what they were
like now"
me - no you can't! (but I never say that)
Paul Ward -
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