Northern Stargazer regulations in Delaware

Species of fish

Astroscopus guttatus or the northern stargazer is a species of fish belonging to the Uranoscopidae family and was first described by Charles Conrad Abbott in 1860. Members of the Uranoscopidae family are characterized by dorsally or dorsolaterally directed eyes placed on or near the top of a large, flattened cuboid head, an oblique to vertical mouth often lined with cutaneous cirri, and an elongated, sub-compressed body. Typically found on the Atlantic shores between the states of North Carolina and New York in the United States, the northern stargazer can sometimes be confused with its sister species the southern stargazer, Astroscopus y-graecum. Both A. guttatus and A. y-graecum overlap in their distributions in Cape Hatteras One way to distinguish the northern stargazer from the southern stargazer is by the presence of numerous small white spots closely spaced along its head and back, whereas the southern stargazer has fewer, larger spots on its back. The northern stargazer is a moderately sized fish that can reach lengths of 22 inches (56 cm). The northern stargazer can be found buried in sandy substrate at depths up to 120 feet where the species remains buried awaiting prey. Stargazers have a flat forehead with a lot of body mass near the mouth creating a body plane optimal for remaining buried under sandy substrate.

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Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Regulations on this page come from DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, not Wikipedia.