A Winter Harbor fifth-generation lobsterman has been defeated in a humorous, international competition that centers on provoking a voracious, razor-toothed monkfish.
Jacob Knowles is not just any Maine fisherman, mind you. He has become a social-media star by documenting his work – for over six million followers.
But despite his popularity teaching the world about the real grind of a Maine fisherman’s life, Knowles also makes sure work isn’t all work.
As it turns out, he and a fellow angler from the country of Norway both posted Facebook videos at the same time showing them each teasing a grisly, ugly, living monster fish, formally known as a monkfish.
For his leg of the stunt, Knowles dangled a thick wooden carpenter’s pencil above the open mouth of a flopping, sharp-toothed monk while out on his lobster boat.
Of course, true to form, the monk opened its huge jaws, immediately clamping down, and viciously chomping on, the thick pencil.
Scary enough, no?
Well, apparently not.
Shrimper Benjamin Bakke of Kristiansand, Norway took it a step further in his video.
Bakke one-upped Knowles by literally sticking his head halfway into a monk’s mouth, feigning screaming once the fish closed its jaws, its teeth slicing through Bakke’s hooded rubber rain gear.
Funny guy, no question.
The Fisherman vs. The Fish trophy obviously goes to Bakke, and heck, why not?
After all, he deserves the publicity in the face of a Maine guy who’s got as many social-media fans as there are fish in the sea.
Bakke, no cold fish himself, also has multi-millions of social-media followers based on his pranks with monkfish.
NationalFisherman.com, in fact, wrote a piece a few years ago titled “The Funniest Catch” about how he keeps work lighthearted on his shrimp boat. The article noted how he occasionally dresses up as a monkfish…
Maine guy vs. Norway guy in a comedic monkfish staredown.
Now there’s a couple of fishermen who know how to have a good time at work – and doing so subliminally at the expense of the animal-rights crowd that will cry “hey come on, monkfish have feelings too.”
Truth be known, most people have fun at the expense of monkfish. They’re the world’s favorite whipping boys.
After watching the competing videos that the monkfish-joking fishermen put on their social-media pages, one Facebooker, Jorge Speed, posted “now I see why women live longer than men.”
“Imagine, we are the aliens to them,” said Facebooker Lukasz Wierzchowski, speculating about what a monkfish thinks when a man sticks his head (or carpenter’s pencil) inside its mouth.
“It looks like a big piranha,” said Deloris Prince.
The word for monkfish in German is seeteufel, which Facebook experts translated for fellow contest followers to “sea devil.”
“Another reason why I stay out of the ocean,” said Stan Lisenring.
