prowfish

The prowfish (Zaprora silenus) is a species of scorpaeniform marine fish found in the northern Pacific Ocean. It is the only extant member of the family, Zaproridae. There are 2 extinct species only known with fossil records, †Zaprora koreana Nam & Nazarkin, 2018 from the Middle Miocene Duho Formation in Pohang, South Korea. Another genus, †Araeosteus rothi Jordan & Gilbert, 1920, is known from the Monterey Formation and the Modelo Formation in Southern California.

Prowfish range from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska west to Kamchatka, Russia; from Navarin Canyon in the Bering Sea south to Hokkaidō, Japan and Monterey, California. An otherwise little-known species, prowfish are important to subsistence fisheries in remote regions.