As you can tell by this second post, I’m still obsessed with the grunt sculpin. It’s such a fascinating looking fish. Check out the pinkish-orange feathery looking fins it has along it’s back, sides and tail. It kind of looks like a rock with feathers, only much more sophisticated of course. According to Milton Love’s… [read more]
Meet the grunt sculpin
I recently met a grunt sculpin and had to share the experience. While peering into a tank at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, suddenly the strangest looking creature started moving towards the front. My first thought, what the… It kind of looks like a seahorse / fish hybrid with a few funky genes in the mix. Thankfully,… [read more]
The history of fishy thinking
I finally just read an article I’ve been saving from the New Yorker, published on August 2, 2010. It’s a book review titled “The Scales Fall” by Elizabeth Kolbert or rather a book review summing up the problems discussed in four books: “Saved by the Sea: A Love Story with Fish” by David Helvarg; “Managed… [read more]
Ocean sunfish holy mola!
What on earth is that? This is a common exclamation upon meeting an ocean sunfish, the craziest looking fish inhabiting the same ocean layers humans frequent. But this peculiar fish sports the coolest scientific name: Mola mola. Possibly Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy who scientifically named thousands of species, suffered a brief nervous tic… [read more]
Sushi lovers beware
Thankfully I never acquired a taste for sushi, it wasn’t common in the Midwest when I was growing up. Because if I actually enjoyed eating it, that would make it much harder to give up now. I’m just trying to be honest that when I say I gave up eating sushi long ago, it really… [read more]
The rock wrasse
This fish has it made. The small mouth of the rock wrasse or Halichoeres semicinctus usually prevents it from being caught by fishermen! Yet, rock wrasses are able to munch on a diverse diet of crabs, snails and algae, not too shabby small mouth. This is all based on information conveyed by Dr. Milton Love’s… [read more]
Introducing the pacific sardine
Well, somebody has to be the bait and quite often it’s the Pacific sardine or Sardinops sagax. Sardines average on the smaller side, but can grow up to more than 16 inches. Size is important because it’s an indicator of a sardine’s sexual maturity. Here’s a telling quote from Dr. Milton Love’s book Probably More… [read more]
The moray eel
Eels are technically fish, so that makes the moray eel one crazy, cool looking fish. Moray eels or Gymnothorax mordax can grow up to five feet and are the only eels along California’s coast that don’t have pectoral fins. If you get really bothered by loud mouth breathers, then you would probably find the moray… [read more]
Scorpionfish…don’t touch!
Don’t touch the spines on a scorpionfish or Scorpaena guttata. (And here I thought that nothing rhymes with with the famous Lion King phrase- Hakuna matata.) It’s called a scorpionfish for a reason. The sharp spines within its fins are poisonous and the toxin is effective even after the fish is dead. Talk about an… [read more]
Shovelnose guitarfish
Meet the shovelnose guitarfish or Rhinobatos productus, a common resident off California’s southern coast. This was another cool creature caught by the trap set in Long Beach Harbor near the breakwall on Cabrillo Aquarium’s See the Sea trip. According to Probably More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the Pacific Coast by… [read more]