Nifty fish...
Wow, two really cool fish from a couple of weeks ago (and one extra from awhile ago).
Didn't get to see the first one first hand, but two people who used to work for us did. Tom is a graduate student at CSULB and his SO Erica now works for another local ocean research agency; they were at the USC marine lab at Santa Catalina Island and an oarfish (Regalecus glesne) came into Big Fisherman Cove. Unfortunately, it swam around for awhile and then died - it's said they're not often seen near shore unless they're dying. It was 14 ft. long and weighed 150 lbs. This one was collected by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, where it will be put on display as a specimen - maybe a good thing, since the one they have on display now was there when I first visited that museum in the third grade, and pretty bleached out. It would be nice if they could keep the original colors, but I don't know if that's possible.
(Photos by Tom Mason and Erica Jarvis; used with permission)
(More pics posted on the same oarfish, I believe. And more info on oarfish... )
These critters are often thought to have inspired the legends of sea serpents. A bit more searching around the web shows that normally these fish like to hang vertically in the water, and they undulate their long dorsal fins for propulsion. Click for video of the juveniles and a lone adult (a small one, 1.5 meters).
From the other end of the size spectrum - the other fish were given to DP when she was sampling today. One of the crewmen on a purse seiner gave her three frozen slender snipefish. Apparently these aren't that uncommon; they're found all around the world from the surface to the bottom, but they only get to be about six inches long, and therefore not a lot of demand for them, although they can occur in large schools. Neat looking little fish with a tubular snout and a very long spine on their first dorsal fin. The big one here is only about 2 inches long.
And just for good measure, a flying fish. There are little boat tours out at Catalina Island during the summer, where they shine a spotlight across the water and you can see all the flying fish gliding across the water.
When I first started here at work, someone told me the story of one of the older biologists (he's retired now), who was driving a small boat one evening along the front side of the island at a fairly good clip, when one of these guys jumped out of the water and smacked him right in the face. The other biologist aboard was wondering why the boat suddenly slowed, until the guy came tumbling into the back of the boat with a bloody, broken nose.
Didn't get to see the first one first hand, but two people who used to work for us did. Tom is a graduate student at CSULB and his SO Erica now works for another local ocean research agency; they were at the USC marine lab at Santa Catalina Island and an oarfish (Regalecus glesne) came into Big Fisherman Cove. Unfortunately, it swam around for awhile and then died - it's said they're not often seen near shore unless they're dying. It was 14 ft. long and weighed 150 lbs. This one was collected by the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, where it will be put on display as a specimen - maybe a good thing, since the one they have on display now was there when I first visited that museum in the third grade, and pretty bleached out. It would be nice if they could keep the original colors, but I don't know if that's possible.
(Photos by Tom Mason and Erica Jarvis; used with permission)
(More pics posted on the same oarfish, I believe. And more info on oarfish... )
These critters are often thought to have inspired the legends of sea serpents. A bit more searching around the web shows that normally these fish like to hang vertically in the water, and they undulate their long dorsal fins for propulsion. Click for video of the juveniles and a lone adult (a small one, 1.5 meters).
From the other end of the size spectrum - the other fish were given to DP when she was sampling today. One of the crewmen on a purse seiner gave her three frozen slender snipefish. Apparently these aren't that uncommon; they're found all around the world from the surface to the bottom, but they only get to be about six inches long, and therefore not a lot of demand for them, although they can occur in large schools. Neat looking little fish with a tubular snout and a very long spine on their first dorsal fin. The big one here is only about 2 inches long.
And just for good measure, a flying fish. There are little boat tours out at Catalina Island during the summer, where they shine a spotlight across the water and you can see all the flying fish gliding across the water.
When I first started here at work, someone told me the story of one of the older biologists (he's retired now), who was driving a small boat one evening along the front side of the island at a fairly good clip, when one of these guys jumped out of the water and smacked him right in the face. The other biologist aboard was wondering why the boat suddenly slowed, until the guy came tumbling into the back of the boat with a bloody, broken nose.