also known as the Oystercracker, Hummingfish, the Midshipman or the First Fish in Space, is the new obsession.  Stay tuned for bizarre facts and strange stories.  There’s no way to know where you might end up as you scroll through this Homage to the Toadfish.  All the strange facts are here, ladies and gentlemen.

In 1998 NASA Sent Toadfish to Space to learn more about the Inner-Aural Ear Vestibule which is remarkably similar to a human inner ear canal.  Science Daily explains a whole lot more….Apparently the Toadfish are a favorite of the NASA Nerolab program, in the Vestibular system of awareness of acceleration, balance, and posture.  The Toadfish is strong and seems to be perfectly suited to space travel.

Hear the Toadfish sing during an interview with a scientist. The scientist talks about how a Toadfish pees with a combination of urine and ammonia in order to mask its presence, or ‘cloak’ itself. Dr. Walsh is conducting ongoing ‘experiments’ with the Toadfish to learn more about its urinating habits.  I do hope that the Toadfish he is experimenting on are treated kindly.

I met a Toadfish once.  I’ll tell that story later.

Okay allow me to tell the story in a brief sort of way.  I was visiting grandma on the farm back east and she lives by the water.  I pulled up a crab trap as I have done every summer since I was a child and trapped within the wire mesh was a fish most strange.  And once I freed it from the trap I could see that the bulging eyes were those of a frog or toad.  A strange iridescent slime oozed from the creature, which seemed to waddle across the dock.  Its mouth gaped wide and a small minnow flopped out.  The toadfish looked at me, as if it were a gift, an offering.  I think maybe I heard a gull cry and looked away, when I looked back, the minnow was gone.  The toadfish glared at me.  I scooped him up in a bucket and showed him to grandma, who said he was an oystercracker, a bottom-dweller.  I reluctantly surrendered the bizarre fish to his watery home, pondering evolution and dinosaurs, considering time travel and fish telepathy.  All my research has led me to believe that the toadfish holds some profound secrets and teachings for humanity, but will we discover them before its too late?  And what will the innocent toadfish of the future suffer at the hands of inquisitive scientists determined to test out all their new theories? Until there’s more, this is all that I have come up with, thank you for visiting.

~Aaron Hall Voronoff Huntington Trotter

September 2009