So you’re on a boat in the middle
of the ocean and its sweltering hot. You may be thinking to yourself again that
it’s the perfect time to swim because there are no alligators in the water. Well
once again you’re wrong!
Today a group of fellow classmates
and I went on a shark tagging expedition with some of the scientists from the
Guy Harvey Shark Institute of the coast of Southern Florida, so swimming in the
area may not be the best choice because sharks like alligators don’t make good swimming
companions. In order to properly tag the shark a specific procedure was
followed. A set of 10 lines were sent out into the water, each containing a
baited hook at different depths in hopes of attracting a shark. The lines were left to sit for about 2 hours
and then drawn up and the sharks were tagged.
While waiting for the sharks to
hopefully bite the line the captain of the vessel operated the ship to a reef that
was far away from where the lines were placed. So I bet you can guess what
activity we all had on our minds; swimming.
After gearing up with a mask,
snorkel and fins we all jumped in the water. We were lucky enough that the
water was the perfect temperature and the reef was not too deep so we were able
to dive down to get a closer look. we even had the opportunity to take some great underwater photos with a GoPro that one of my fellow classmates brought along.
After calmly floating and observing
on the surface we were able to see many different kinds of reef fish as well as
coral. One of the species that I found to be the most majestic was the porkfish.
These are football shaped and are of silver body with yellow horizontal stripes
running form tip to tail. Across the eye these fish have 2 black diagonal
stripes. Porkfish get their name from their unique ability to make a grunting
noise like a pig when they grind their teeth together that is similar to the
way that the grunt family do. These fish
have the ability to grow up to 15 feet long and the modest size of 2 pounds but
they are generally found in much smaller sizes. These fish are normally not
used for the commercial fishing industry for consumption but they are widely
used in the aquarium industry. They can generally be found in shallow reefs
near the equator on the western boundaries of the oceans.
For more information about these
fish visit:
That snorkeling picture is adorable. I love it. Also, the Porkfish is amazing. I never knew that they made grunting noises like pigs though. That's a little freaky. How are they able to grow up to 15 feet long? That's crazy!
ReplyDeleteGetting to snorkel after letting out the shark tagging buoys was a nice change from sitting out in the sun. It was so interesting to see how many different kinds of fish there were and being able to see them in the wild.
ReplyDelete