{"id":1692,"date":"2008-11-22T19:58:26","date_gmt":"2008-11-22T23:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1692"},"modified":"2008-11-22T22:56:44","modified_gmt":"2008-11-23T02:56:44","slug":"csi-icebox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1692","title":{"rendered":"CSI Icebox"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Don Lewis (center), Krill Carson (right) and Her Assistant<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Like\u00c2\u00a0many research teams,\u00c2\u00a0Turtle Journal\u00c2\u00a0admits to\u00c2\u00a0a certain addiction to CSI-like dramas.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtle Journal takes special pleasure in the sun, warmth and Caribbean color of CSI Miami … especially\u00c2\u00a0its heat\u00c2\u00a0as winter grips\u00c2\u00a0the Great White North.\u00c2\u00a0 The original CSI in Las Vegas ranks first in science and second in warmth, but still catches our attention.\u00c2\u00a0 The New York rendition can be a bit too close to home, not in its urban setting, but with its top coats\u00c2\u00a0and snow.\u00c2\u00a0 But nothing in that collection of shows or their look-alikes could prepare us for Friday’s ocean sunfish examination in sub-20 degree temperatures with a north-northwest wind blasting in our faces directly from the Arctic tundra.\u00c2\u00a0 Conditions were brutal and beyond description.\u00c2\u00a0 For instance, we wore three layers of gloves: surgical gloves, woolen gloves and thick work gloves.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, when we took five minute “thaw breaks” in the car between cuts, our fingers sizzled in frozen pain as though holding a block of dry ice in the plam of a bare hand with knuckles lying on a blazing griddle.<\/p>\n

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Male Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola) @ Boathouse Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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As reported in yesterday’s post (Another Ocean Sunfish Washes Ashore on Cape Cod<\/a>), this animal had been bouncing around the bay for a while as illustrated by the breakdown in its skin.\u00c2\u00a0 Inside, the internal organs had largely deteriorated beyond useful data other than anatomical organization.\u00c2\u00a0 We did determine the gender of this ocean sunfish: male.\u00c2\u00a0 The one at Linnell Landing was female; so, we now have photo-documentation of both genders.\u00c2\u00a0 We hope to post much of this material to a special location on Turtle Journal for access by students and scientists to aid future naturalists in studying marine species, but with enough warning about the nature of these images, so that no one will be offended.<\/p>\n

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Measures 6 Feet 1.5 Inches Snout to Caudil Fin<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the record, this male measured\u00c2\u00a06 feet 1.5 inches curved measurement from caudal fin to snout and 7 feet 4 inches from tip of anal fin to tip of dorsal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 The female on Linnell Landing measured measured\u00c2\u00a06 feet\u00c2\u00a08 inches (curved surface) from tip of snout to trailing edge of caudal fin.\u00c2\u00a0 It measured\u00c2\u00a07 feet\u00c2\u00a05 inches from the tip of the dorsal (top) fin to the\u00c2\u00a0tip of the anal (bottom) fin.\u00c2\u00a0 For these two samples, the ratio of length to height was 83.5% for the male and 89.9% for the female.<\/p>\n

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

Clinical Sample of Anatomical Examination<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

One objective of these necropsies is to construct a model of ocean sunfish anatomy which requires detailed and precise measurements and documentation.\u00c2\u00a0 While we won’t show any too candid images in these posts, the video clip above gives an example of the type of documentation we are attempting to achieve.<\/p>\n

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Strange Bedfellows Enjoy Wintry Shirttail Point<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Not everyone was put off by yesterday’s cold.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple of local\u00c2\u00a0blubbery critters\u00c2\u00a0settled into the leeward shadow of Shirttail Point to bask on the sandy beach formed at low tide.\u00c2\u00a0 Since the tide was rising, they would squirm and wiggle about every couple of minutes to gain a little higher ground for a few more minutes of basking pleasure.<\/p>\n

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Life’s a Beach<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

When\u00c2\u00a0we watched this scene play out through the lens, we thought of the old Sesame Street bit about “one of these things doesn’t look like the other, one of these things doesn’t belong.”\u00c2\u00a0 But it didn’t seem to matter much to the participants.\u00c2\u00a0 Everyone was welcome to join the beach party.<\/p>\n

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

What’s Wrong with Sunbathing in a Winter Coat?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spend two minutes savoring life as a Wellfleet seal!<\/p>\n

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At this time of year, if something isn’t nailed down tight, then it is flotsam.\u00c2\u00a0 Beaches become littered with living, dead\u00c2\u00a0and material debris thrown about like toothpicks in blistering winds and roaring seas.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a good time to be a researcher on Cape Cod, if only the thermostat could be set about 50 degrees higher.\u00c2\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Lewis (center), Krill Carson (right) and Her Assistant Like\u00c2\u00a0many research teams,\u00c2\u00a0Turtle Journal\u00c2\u00a0admits to\u00c2\u00a0a certain addiction to CSI-like dramas.\u00c2\u00a0 Turtle Journal takes special pleasure in the sun, warmth and Caribbean color of CSI Miami … especially\u00c2\u00a0its heat\u00c2\u00a0as winter grips\u00c2\u00a0the Great White North.\u00c2\u00a0 The original CSI in Las Vegas ranks first in science and second in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[823],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692"}],"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=1692"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1710,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1692\/revisions\/1710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}