Common bleak small shellfish and plant detritus. It is found in streams and lakes. The bleak prefers open waters and is found in large numbers where there is an inflow of food from pumping stations or behind weirs. The bleak spawns near the shore in shallow waters. Some are found in deep water. The substrate is not important. The bleak is an important food source for predatory fish. It is more sensitive to pollution than other cyprinids, which might explain the decline in North-Western Europe. Bleak are used as bait for sport-fishing for larger fish. In 1656 in Paris, a Mr. Jaquin
Bucca (mythological creature) in Cornish tin mines, granting wishes in exchange for food (see knockers). Bucca (mythological creature) Bucca is a male sea-spirit in Cornish folklore - a merman- that inhabited mines and coastal communities as a hobgoblin during storms. The mythological creature is a type of water spirit likely related to the Púca from Irish and Welsh folklore and the female mari-morgans - a type of mermaid from Welsh and Breton mythology. Rev W. S. Lach-Szyrma, one 19th-century writer on Cornish antiquities, suggested the Bucca had originally been an ancient pagan deity of the sea such as Irish Nechtan or British Nodens,