Maine lobster fisherman Blake Haass shared a video of an extra fish he caught in his fishing net on July 12, but unlike others, it had one extra feature—an in-built suction cup that lets it stick to surfaces.
“A lot of the times in the summer we catch these lump fish that have these suction cups on the bottom side of them. If you stick them up to a flat surface, they can actually stick for quite a while,” he explained.
In the clip, Haass demonstrated exactly how it works, sticking the fish to a metal container on the boat. The fish stayed put for the rest of the video.
Haass’ catch is a lumpfish, also known as a lumpsucker or cyclopterus lumpus. Lumpfish are commonly found in the North Atlantic, but can also be found as south in the Atlantic Ocean as Chesapeake Bay.
As shown in the video, the body is a ball-like shape with pelvic fins at the bottom that form suction discs which they use to attach themselves to rocks and other surfaces.
They can grow to be as big as two feet in length and can weigh up to 21 pounds. Generally, lumpfish live between six and seven years, but the oldest recorded was 13 years old.
Unlike most other species of fish, female lumpfish are actually bigger than their male counterparts.
“They say it’s good luck to kiss them on the lips before you throw them back, so that’s what I did,” said Haass at the end of the video.
In a follow-up clip, he even showed himself doing the ritual, pecking the fish directly on the lips before throwing it back in. Whatever floats your boat.
After followers continued to ask, he shared another video pecking the fish, only to be bitten on the lip by it.
With over 21 million views, the video has surprised most viewers who had no idea fish like this even existed.
“Is that real?” asked one user.
“I didn’t even believe this was real until I looked at it,” wrote another.
“Very beautiful, very powerful,” commented an abundance of users, referencing a previously popular TikTok video starring a lumpfish too. In the clip, TikTok user @spadaniel44 explained what the fish was, before describing it as, “very beautiful, very powerful.”
Newsweek has contacted Blake Haass for comment.