California Diving News - California Marine Life: Interacting with Scorpionfish


Handling scorpionfish is risky but can be done if approached with caution.	Photos by Steven Benavides.

Interacting with Scorpionfish

This is not your normal marine life interaction article. Interact with a scorpionfish and you could get hurt. Scorpionfish are aptly named. Their venom-filled spines can cause a great deal of pain if they puncture the skin. Be forewarned—interacting with scorpionfish carries very real risk.

Scorpionfish are a sedentary bottom dwelling fish that vary in size from just a few inches to just over a foot long. Their skin is richly textured and calico patterned, often with vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. They make for excellent photo subjects.

But just as often they are dull in color to blend into their backgrounds. This is why they occasional become a problem for divers. The unsuspecting aquanaut cruises across the rock bottom and then settles onto a spot that looks just like part of the rocks—only it’s a scorpionfish. And it’s “YAYOHEE!” if a hand or any other body part lands on the scorpionfish. This is not a good interaction.

There is a way, still with some risk, to have a more interesting interaction with a scorpionfish. Scorpionfish are common to almost any rocky reef, although you will not find one on every dive. They tend to be more easy to approach in the daytime when they are more sedentary (they feed mostly at night). What you want to do is take advantage of this fish’s innate “cockiness.” Other creatures on the reef do not bother the scorpionfish because of the painful consequences. The fish is venomous and it knows it; consequently, you can generally get very close. How close?

If you approach low, very slow and gently put your gloved hand under its chin, sometimes you can get your hand under the fish and lift it off the bottom. The fish’s most dangerous spines are on dorsal fins (along the top across its back) but it also has poisonous spines in its ventricle (side) fins and anal (bottom) fins. There are even some in small ones in its chin and gill plate. But long as you are gentle and you are using a hand with a sturdy glove, you should be okay.

Lift the fish very slowly off the bottom and bring it to your face for close observation of its intricate patterns and colors. Their faces have a unique and interesting “frown” that alone is enough to scare a few people away. It looks like a very grouchy fish. If at any time the fish swims off your hand, let it go and make no attempt to restrain it lest you be impaled on the painful spines. Don’t raise it too far off the bottom or you may exceed its comfort level and also put it at greater risk to predators should it decide to swim off. To make the fish more comfortable. Cup both hands into a shallow bowl so the fish feels at least somewhat protected.

Interacting with marine life is something I have been doing for 30 years now and it just keeps getting more interesting. Many techniques I have abandoned; some, I’ve just picked up over the last few years. Handling scorpionfish, one of the most poisonous along our coast, is something I just started to do recently. I imagine my technique will improve in the next few years but, hopefully, not due to painful failings. If you want to try it, do so at your own risk, both of painful failure and pleasurable encounter.

Dale Sheckler is Editor and Publisher of California Diving News, Producer of the annual SCUBA Show expo held each June in Long Beach, CA, and co-author of the book A Diver's Guide to Southern California's Best Beach Dives, 3rd Edition.