Common name: Lumpsucker

Japanese name: ランプフィッシュ、ランプサッカー

Scientific name: Cyclopterus lumpus Linnaeus, 1758

Nigiri sushi detail: Lumpsucker Nigiri sushi

Remarks: Substitute fish for caviar

Characteristics:

Lumpsucker (Yokozuna-dangouo) are distributed in the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean from southern Greenland, the Barents Sea, Iceland to the Bay of Biscay, and from the Bay of Hudson to New Jersey, USA. It is found on reefs at depths of 50 to 150 meters. It is not solitary but often found in small schools. It is the largest of the Lumpsucker group, reaching a total length of 60 cm. Its body is flattened and its height is high.

Lumpsucker has a strong vitality and can be kept relatively fresh, and its catch is stable. The roe is salted and consumed worldwide as a substitute for caviar. Although extremely low-priced compared to caviar, Lumpsucker eggs are green, brown, or red and are shipped colored black.

The meat is gelatinous, and in the past, it was customary to eat it smoked or otherwise in Northern Europe, but in recent years it has not been consumed at all, and all the fish bodies after the eggs were removed were discarded at sea. However, since around 2008, consumption in China has increased rapidly as a substitute for sea cucumbers, which have a similar texture to sea cucumbers, and most of the fish are now exported to China.

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