A species of fish rarely seen in Westcountry waters due to cooler temperatures has been landed in Cornwall.
Cornish gill-net fishermen have caught two Atlantic bonito, a member of the tuna family, which are normally found in warmer waters.
The first capture came off the Lizard on August 19 by fishermen Anthony Hosking and Darren Thurlaway aboard the gill-netter Lucy Marianna. The fish weighed 2.3kg.
Mr Hosking said: "At first we had no idea what it was, it looked like some sort of tuna and later we found it to be an Atlantic bonito.
"We caught it in nets used to catch haddock, nets that are set on the seabed for just a couple of hours."
After taking their unusual fish to local firm Kernow- sashimi, which specialises in selling fish to Japanese restaurants, its boss Dylan Bean confirmed it to be an Atlantic bonito.
Nearby fisherman Willy Hunt pulled aboard his gill-netter Foxy Lady a bonito weighing 1.9kg just four days later – he also landed the fish to Kernowsashimi, Mr Bean later sending it to the Japanese restaurant Soseki, in London.
While the Atlantic bonito forms a sizeable commercial fishery off Northern Spain, both fish captured close to the Lizard remain a rarity in the UK seas, yet add to the growing list of Atlantic bonito recorded around Britain.
A single fish was taken from Guernsey in November 2010 after one was caught close to Clovelly in North Devon, the British Marine Life Study Society said.
Records reveal that in July 2010 five specimens were caught in a ring net in the seas close to Ryfylke in Norway, seas that once supported a Bluefin Tunny fishery with an annual catch of 900 tonnes between 1950 and 1954.
In August last year, two Atlantic bonito were landed at Plymouth fish market and put on sale. Caught by the Mevagissey netter Iris in a pelagic set-net, together they weighed 3.6 kg. Single fish were landed at Brixham and Newlyn, and two more came from Clovelly.
Plymouth-based rare fish expert Doug Herdson said: "There have been a few around the Westcountry. The reason? Who knows, there are so many factors, basically numbers vary from year to year.
"Yes it could be a temperature link but by and large the fish will go wherever they can find food and I believe that we have especially good plankton at the moment around the South West and as a result there are plenty of small fish that the Atlantic bonito prey on. There is of course the growing number of fishermen and anglers who report their catches of rare fish, when in previous years fewer did so."
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