US police order coastal city residents to stop calling for giant fish

The local government of Wareham, a city in the US state of Massachusetts, has asked locals to “ stop calling the police ” after a strange kind of sea creature has been spotted at sea.

The Wareham Department of Natural Resources was called in to take a look and quickly identify the aquatic culprit: not a shark, not a missing link from the Jurassic period, not Nessie.

It is a sunfish, more like an ocean sunfish. It is one of the heaviest bony fish in the world and adults can weigh up to 1 ton.

The WDNR identified the visitor with a statement on its Facebook page accompanied by a request, in capital letters with no less than two exclamation points, to stop calling Wareham police seeking a full-blown underwater investigation.

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“We know of a sunfish in Broad Cove. We have checked it out and it is doing normal sunfish activities. It is swimming. It is not stranded or suffering. The sunfish is OK. Don’t be jealous just because it is not swimming! to call the police department about this sunfish !! “

Wareham Department of Natural Resources Director and Harbor Master Garry Buckminster said he heard some of the calls to the police were made through 911. His office started taking calls on Monday at 6.30am – it’s a seal, it’s a shark. Many even got it right, it’s a sunfish.

He said concerned calls are appreciated, but not to the police, who have more pressing matters. Sea sunfish, a distant relation to their freshwater namesakes that populate the local lakes, get stranded in these parts at this time of year. Large fish get into tight or shallow places and cannot swim.

Carol “Krill” Carson, president of the nonprofit New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance, said the huge fish can move into tight spots and get stuck. Or the tide may go out and they are left behind. Carson is a marine biologist with a fondness for whales, hence the nickname. Sunfish came into focus when calls began pouring in during the fall about these strange stranded fish.

“It happens every fall,” he said. They get fat in Cape Cod Bay in the summer, but they should go now for warmer waters. They cannot withstand prolonged exposure to colder water. “We mainly have juveniles and young sunfish,” he said, which are in trouble.

He created a sighting network in 2005, he said. Last year, it recorded more than 130 strandings, most on the North Cape, but some even in New Jersey waters. More than 20 have been registered so far this year.

While they are powerful swimmers in deep water. They are relatively defenseless in shallow depths. You can wade to a sunfish in shallow water and help it out without any fear. However, they spit when confronted. “It’s a bit sad,” he said. “Come on kid. I’m just trying to help you.”

The largest corpse that weighed weighed 635 kg, he said. There are several species, but the most common is the “common” sunfish (in this case) aptly named. They have a high dorsal fin that may evoke the John Williams theme of Jaws when spied on by nervous swimmers.

However, they tend to swim sideways, so the ridge will go in and out of the water as they cruise. So when the dorsal fin goes up and down, it is not a shark. Sharks swim in a straight line with their backs above the water.

Carson hopes the Broad Cove visitor went well. It’s hard to tell as they fall to the bottom when they pass away, he said. They do not float. Buckminster said there have been no further sightings in Wareham of this visitor. Some years there are one or two sightings of sunfish, sometimes more, sometimes none. As Carson tries to save every sunfish he finds, necropsies (animal autopsies) are performed on those he can’t and the results are shared with marine biologists locally and internationally.

“It helps people better understand this unusual species,” he said. And, perhaps one day, it can help reduce calls to the police.

– Cape Cod Times.