Guwahati, Jan. 30: On a cold January morning, some fishermen in Goalpara came up with a catch which they had never seen nor heard of: a deep-sea rayfish from the depths of the Brahmaputra.
The discovery of the rayfish in freshwater has prompted the state zoo authorities to launch a project to study its journey from the deep seas to the Brahmaputra.
The zoo authorities have made arrangements to display the rare fish. Visitors thronging the zoo are making a beeline for the enclosure housing the fish ? albeit long dead ? to get a glimpse of the marine specimen weighing 150 kg with a body span of six feet.
?It may have entered the Brahmaputra to breed. That is when it got caught,? divisional forest officer of Assam State Zoo S.S. Rao told The Telegraph.
Rao said studies would soon be initiated to find out more about the rayfish and how it managed to reach the river. ?We will concentrate our research on how the rayfish entered the river, its habitat, breeding and its role in the eco-system,? Rao said.
Till now, there has also been no underwater exploration on marine life in the Brahmaputra.
Rao said the cash-strapped zoo had to rope in a wildlife NGO to house the rayfish which will be kept in a glass container. Visitors, however, will have to buy tickets for a glimpse of the fish, he said. That would help generate a bit of revenue, Rao added.
Rayfish is an extremely flat-bodied cartilaginous marine specimen whose pectoral fins are developed into broad, wing-like appendages, attached all along the sides of the head.
The fish swims by rippling movements of these fins which makes it look like an underwater bird. Most of the rayfish have slender whip-like tails, which are used as an object of either offence or defence.
The rays, which form the order batoidea, are divided into seven families. Most of the ray species have electric organs in their wings and tail through which they generate electric current, some strong enough to kill a human.
It is said that the ancient Greeks used the rayfish for ?shock therapy?.