{"id":1563,"date":"2008-11-12T01:29:23","date_gmt":"2008-11-12T05:29:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2008-11-20T23:34:16","modified_gmt":"2008-11-21T03:34:16","slug":"two-giant-ocean-sunfish-wash-up-on-cape-cod-beaches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1563","title":{"rendered":"Two Giant Ocean Sunfish Wash Up on Cape Cod Beaches"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Seagulls Massing in Protected Cove<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The weather turned\u00c2\u00a0cold today\u00c2\u00a0with\u00c2\u00a0brisk north-northwesterly winds\u00c2\u00a0shuttling\u00c2\u00a0heavy autumn clouds over the Cape, ladened with\u00c2\u00a0promise of\u00c2\u00a0brief winter days and long winter nights.\u00c2\u00a0 Birds hunkered in leeward coves to wait out the blow.\u00c2\u00a0 Those winds\u00c2\u00a0abetted astronomically high tides to drive two large ocean sunfish onto north-facing Cape Cod beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 Each measured nearly seven feet in diameter and washed ashore on either side of the Cape Cod Canal: one in Brewster and the other in Bourne.<\/p>\n

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Students from Ipswich Examine Linnell Landing Ocean Sunfish<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We received the first call around noon through the National Marine Life Center<\/a> in Buzzards Bay when a family spotted a huge, unidentified fish on\u00c2\u00a0the Sagamore Beach shore.\u00c2\u00a0 Once direct communication was established, the family sent cell phone pictures that confirmed the animal’s identify as a large ocean sunfish.\u00c2\u00a0 When we called Krill Carson from the NEBShark Project<\/a> to report this finding, she told us that she was en route to\u00c2\u00a0a\u00c2\u00a0reported ocean sunfish stranding at Linnell Landing in Brewster.\u00c2\u00a0 Since she was in Middleboro on the mainland side of the canal and we were in Eastham on the Outer Cape, we switched critters.\u00c2\u00a0 Krill would check out the Sagamore sunfish and we would examine the Brewster creature.\u00c2\u00a0 Light would be fading fast on a mid-November afternoon, and each sunfish needed to be documented before\u00c2\u00a0sunset\u00c2\u00a0… and before another astronomically high tide might drag it back out to sea.<\/p>\n

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Large Ocean Sunfish Deposited with Astronomically High Tide<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We parked at the Brewster Historical Society<\/a> and hiked the back trail to the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Directly in front of the beach stairs we found a very large ocean sunfish that had been deposited on the tide.\u00c2\u00a0 A group of four boys from the North Shore joined us to learn more about this strange discovery\u00c2\u00a0on a bayside beach.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Large Ocean Sunfish with Its Truncated Caudal (Tail) Fin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The sunfish measured six feet eight inches (curved surface) from tip of snout to trailing edge of caudal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 It measured seven feet five inches from the tip of the dorsal (top) fin to the\u00c2\u00a0tip of the anal (bottom) fin.\u00c2\u00a0 The dorsal fin was two feet four and a half inches high, and the anal fin was two feet three and a half inches low.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Seven-Foot Sunfish at Linnell Landing, Brewster<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Leaving Brewster and the Linnell Landing sunfish, we drove down the main Cape highway, Route 6.\u00c2\u00a0 The sun had long set when we reached the Sagamore Bridge and zigzagged through\u00c2\u00a0unlit backstreets to Phillips Road along Cape Cod Bay.\u00c2\u00a0 We crossed the coastal dune and saw a large shadowy shape illuminated by the dim ocean glow.<\/p>\n

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Ocean Sunfish on Dark Sagamore Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Krill had already inspected this animal and had taken a small tissue sample for analysis.\u00c2\u00a0 Just to be sure, though, we took measurements for our own records and for comparision with the Linnell Landing sunfish.<\/p>\n

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Sue Wieber Nourse Records Ocean Sunfish Measurements<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The fun part is trying to take measurements and photographs in the pitch black night.\u00c2\u00a0 Luckily, our camera comes with infrared focus … and the hand-held cellphone offers illumination to read tapes and\u00c2\u00a0lighted keyboards to enter the data.\u00c2\u00a0 The Sagamore Beach sunfish measured six feet eight inches (curved surface) from tip of snout to trailing edge of caudal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 The doral fin had been sliced and its top was missing, so our tip of dorsal to tip of anal fin measurement is\u00c2\u00a0a bit short\u00c2\u00a0at six feet ten inches.\u00c2\u00a0 The animal’s girth (curved measurment) reached four feet seven inches.<\/p>\n

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Click Here to View Video in High Quality<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Seven-Foot Sunfish at Sagamore Beach, Bourne<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For more information about pelagic ocean sunfish, see our post Exotic Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seagulls Massing in Protected Cove The weather turned\u00c2\u00a0cold today\u00c2\u00a0with\u00c2\u00a0brisk north-northwesterly winds\u00c2\u00a0shuttling\u00c2\u00a0heavy autumn clouds over the Cape, ladened with\u00c2\u00a0promise of\u00c2\u00a0brief winter days and long winter nights.\u00c2\u00a0 Birds hunkered in leeward coves to wait out the blow.\u00c2\u00a0 Those winds\u00c2\u00a0abetted astronomically high tides to drive two large ocean sunfish onto north-facing Cape Cod beaches.\u00c2\u00a0 Each measured nearly seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[824],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1563"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1680,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1563\/revisions\/1680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}