‘Cryptic’ creature caught by angler off Malta is first-of-its-kind catch. See it (2025)

In the middle of the Mediterranean, off the coast of the island nation of Malta, a professional fisherman dropped his trammel net into the water.

The net was pulled along the sandy bottom, running over rocks jutting out from the soft seafloor.

The fisherman, Melchiore Camilleri, pulled the net up and noticed two red fish caught in the lattice.

He didn’t recognize the fish, so he decided to call in the experts. On April 13, Camilleri reported the fish to the “Spot the Alien Fish” citizen science project operated through the Department of Geosciences of the University of Malta.

It was a species never seen in these waters before — a first-of-its-kind catch.

“Subsequently, on (May 3), another individual presenting similar external morphology was photographed (in its habitat) by a diver at Cirkewwa, off the northwestern coast of Malta, at (65 feet) of depth, on hard bottom covered with macroalgae,” researchers said in a study published Sept. 2 in the peer-reviewed journal Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria.

The fish were identified as Synodus synodus, also known as diamond lizardfish or redbarret lizardfish, according to the study.

The two fish caught by the angler measured 11.8 inches and 6.5 inches long, and weighed about half a pound and 0.08 pounds, respectively, researchers said.

Their bodies are “elongate” and “cylindrical” with short fins and a rounded snout, according to the study.

The fish are red, with “four red brown large bands across (the) back” and orange bands, researchers said. There are also “sparse sky-blue shades” and a black spot on the tip of their snouts.

Diamond lizardfish can reach lengths of about 17 inches, but most fall closer to about 8 inches long, according to the study.

In Malta, they were found near rocks in shallow water, and are expected to eat smaller fish and crustaceans, researchers said.

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“The species is known from both sides of the Atlantic: along the western Atlantic coast from Uruguay to Canada, and along the eastern Atlantic from Senegal to northern Angola, including islands such as Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde, Ascension and St. Helena,” according to the study.

The angler told researchers through the project that he had previously caught between 5 and 10 of the fish since January, but they had been sold and not documented, researchers said. The fish is therefore expected to be a neonative species, or a species that has expanded into a new range on their own, and not through human actions of introducing an invasive species.

“The diamond lizardfish S. synodus could be an uncommon species in the Mediterranean waters, or alternatively, it is an under-recorded one, due to its cryptic behavior or due to its similarity with other species of Synodontidae,” researchers said.

The “Spot the Alien Fish” project was launched in 2017 as a way to promote reports of non-native fish species in Maltese waters, thanks to the work of citizen scientists and the general public, according to the project website.

The project cites the Suez Canal, an artificial canal built to connect the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, as a major contributor to invasive species around Malta.

Other species that travel through the natural Strait of Gibraltar are neonative species, like the diamond lizardfish, that researchers believe are expanding their range on their own, according to the project.

Malta is in the central Mediterranean, south of Italy, east of Tunisia and north of Libya.

The research team includes Alan Deidun, Maria Corsini-Foka, Bruno Zava, Alessio Marrone, Giusy Catalano and Fausto Tinti. The angler is Melchiore Camilleri and the diver is Edmond Cuschieri.