Malpe: Rare 20kg fish caught; fetches Rs 1.8 lakh!

Malpe: A rare fish caught by the crew of a deepsea fishing boat here fetched a whopping Rs 1.8 lakh at the auction on Tuesday.

A ghol fish weighing 20kg was caught in the nets of deepsea boat ‘Balarama’. The fish was sold at Rs 1.80 lakh i.e.Rs 9,000 per kg at auction at Malpe port.

Ghol fish, biologically known as ‘Protonibea Diacanthus’, locally known as goli fish, and commonly called the black-spotted croaker fish, is an exotic fish. It is and prized in east Asia for its medicinal properties, said Sivakumar Haragi and Srikanth GB of the Marine Biology department of Karnatak University.

In addition to tasty meat, the fish is valuable for the content in its stomach pouch. This pouch in its stomach gives it the name “Sea Gold” because it is believed to have potent medicinal properties and has a very high valuation abroad.

Majorly found in the Indo-Pacific region, Ghol fish is one of the most expensive marine fish in the world.  It is found in the coastal estuary that extends from Sri Lanka to Australia in the Arabian sea.

Ghol fish can grow up to 1.5 meters in length. AS the weight of the fish increases, so does the valuation. A 30 kg fish can fetch upwards of Rs 5 lakh.