A Spotted Fin Butterfly Fish
It happens every year. The Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean shifts. The warmer water migrates north, and with it come tropical fish. Normally the fish here in Rhode Island are a dowdy grey, and even brownish. But in September and October the fish glow yellow, orange, blue and green. Gossip spreads through the dive community about who caught what exotic fish for their aquarium. Last year a friend of ours caught a rare lion fish for his tank. Last weekend another friend of ours caught a sea horse for her tank. I’ve never seen a sea horse in the ocean, and my lucky friend caught one.
Here's a lion fish, like the one our friend caught, photo credit: www.taba-heights.co.uk/DivingSnorkeling.html
On Sunday Todd and I went diving at Fort Wetherhill, on the southern tip of Jamestown, Rhode Island. We saw the usual lobsters hiding in the rocks, and the dowdy looking fish. But this time I saw two spotted fin butterfly fish. Then the same friend who caught the sea horse before, also caught a spotted fin butterfly.
This picture is kind of like the fish I saw on Sunday, photo credit: piddlefish.com.
I am terrible with fish names. I can never seem to get them to stick in my mind. But a few years ago I saw two clown fish--you know, like the ones in Finding Nemo. The kicker is I saw these clown fish on a dive just off of Newport.
This, my friends, is why I dive.
Labels: diving
posted by BJ Knapp at
5:11 AM
5 Comments:
Thats exactly why I want to dive. That would be so cool to see.
That's awesome you got to see some tropical fishes. Hell, I'm fascinated anytime I see a fish. It's amazing to turn and suddenly be eye-to-eye with a big Northern, or to have bass the size of my head swimming within inches of my hands.
Leave the Fish where you found them so others may have the same privelge. Taking trophies home to die such as the seahorse shows nothing but ignorance and foolishness. Don't be environmental distructive and take the last seahorse. How long did the sea horse live? A week before it died of starvation. Hope you change your ways so others (Heidi and Carol) may see the beauty of nature without human destruction.
Anonymous, I have taken only pictures in my diving career. The friends who have taken the fish still have them, by the way, and they are thriving in their environments.
The New England Aquarium in Boston holds an event every year in which divers are encouraged to collect specimens for study at their facility. These studies have revealed a great deal about the lives of these fish as well as the environment they live in.
Without these studies we never would have known the extent of destruction of the reefs so that we humans can change our ways to preserve them for future generations.
Hi Katy, Thank you for your lovely comment. Had you actually read the text (you know, the part with the words) you would have seen the part where I said that my friend caught a spotted fin butterfly.
Who's the dumbass now?
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