12/6/2023 0 Comments Strange ocean phenomenaAs for why the hefty fish had meandered so far north, global warming could be the culprit as ocean temperatures heat up, opah are leaving their too-balmy homes for once-colder dwellings. These pelagic, or open ocean, fish are typically found off the coast of California and near Hawaii, so finding one so far north is extremely rare. And it sported golden eyes.Įven more surprising than its appearance was finding the fish hundreds of miles from home. The 3.5-foot-long (1 meter) fish (also called an opah) showed off a mix of silvery and bright reddish-orange scales with scattered white dots covering its flattened body. The dazzling remains of a 100-pound (45 kilograms) moonfish washed up on an Oregon beach in July, where it surprised beachgoers with its girth and glistening hue. (Image credit: TiffanyBoothe/SeasideAquarium) Read more: Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida Majestic moofish surprises Oregon beachgoersĪ 100-pound opah, also known as a moonfish, washed up on a beach near Sunset Beach in northern Oregon on July 14. But wildlife officials should still be on the lookout just in case these fish get a foothold in the Sunshine State, he said. What's more, it would take many arapaimas to set up a viable population in Florida, and just one dead arapaima has been found so far, David noted. But it has a few quirks: It breeds only in nests on flood plains, spends valuable time and energy caring for its young, and doesn't reach sexual maturity until it's about 5 feet (1.5 m) long and at least 3 to 5 years old, Solomon David, an aquatic ecologist at Nicholls State University in Louisiana who wasn't involved with the recent arapaima sighting, told Live Science. The arapaima is one of the world's largest freshwater fish, and can grow to be 10 feet (3 meters) long and up to 440 lbs. But this so-called monster, the arapaima ( Arapaima gigas), faces many hurdles before it can call Florida home. When Florida locals found the rotting body of a dead Amazon "river monster" near the Gulf of Mexico, many worried that this beast might become the state's latest invasive species. (Image credit: TatianaMironenko via Getty Images) The arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, is native to the Amazon River. Read more: Mysterious oil spill covers Israel's coastline in toxic tar balls Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida Beaches also had to be closed to the public after several cleanup volunteers had to be taken to hospital after inhaling toxic fumes given off by the tar balls. It was described by officials as "one of the most serious ecological disasters" the country had ever seen. The Israel spill, however, turned into tar balls because rough sea conditions from a storm broke up the slick and mixed it into the seawater for several days creating small concentrated blobs of congealed oil. Normally, oil spills form a slick across the sea's surface and washes up on beaches in a more liquid form. Over 100 miles (160 kilometers) were affected by the tar balls which were the result of an oil spill 31 miles (50 km) off the coast. In February, strange balls of tar began to wash up along Israel's Mediterranean coastline. 22 (Image credit: JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images) This trend of mass die-offs will likely continue as global warming escalates over the coming decades.Īn Israeli soldier displays a tar ball during cleanup operation at the Sharon Beach National Park, north of Tel Aviv city, on Feb. Why are some Velella stranding events so much more massive than others? A study published in March 2021 found that the biggest stranding events occurred in years with record high ocean surface temperatures, driven by a phenomenon known as "the blob." The blob warms surface waters in the Pacific Ocean, fostering larger colonies of Velella at sea when the winds change, those massive colonies end up on shore, littering beaches with millions of jelly carcasses. Sometimes, those colonies include thousands of individual jellies other times, they include millions. When wind patterns change with the seasons, huge colonies of the jellies can end up stranded on the shore. These jellies float near the top of the ocean, and have a little sail on their backs that catches wind and pushes them from one feeding ground to the next. Every year, millions of by-the-wind sailor jellyfish ( Velella velella) wash up and die on beaches around the world.
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