tracy's journal-finding the ocean sunfish

Finding the Ocean Sunfish

March 9, 2008
BIG day on the beach!
Steve and I went out for a walk on the beach today and it turned into a 3 and half hour walk! Today was a shell pickers dream on the beach. Shells galore!

When you have an exciting find it becomes addictive to keep walking and see what else you might find. You just never know what you might come upon.
Like this BIG guy!

This is a Sun Fish (thanks for the info Logan!) which you can read about here on Wikidpedia. Unfortunately, this one appears to have had a run in with a boat propeller. So sad.

This was Steve’s spectacular shell find of the day.
There it was just sitting on the shoreline pretty as a picture.

Todays loot!

Van Hyning's Cockle both sides still connected. Viewed from the side it's called a Heart Clam.

The Ocean Sunfish
March 10, 2008

I added more photos of the Ocean Sunfish on the photography page. Since we saw the Ocean Sunfish washed ashore I have been reading about it online and what a fascinating fish this is!
A sometimes very large and yet gentle creature.

I can't stop thinking about it and I came across a fantastic site that has wonderful photography and information from a research team that studies the Ocean Sunfish. Check it out! oceansunfish.org
Also be sure to watch the video from Marine Biologist, Tierney Thys.

The Ocean Sunfish and Sea Turtles eat Jelly Fish and I read that said they sometimes mistake discarded plastic bags for Jelly Fish and of course that cannot have a good end. It appears that this Sunfish met his end with the propellor of a boat, but on the day that we saw this we also picked up around 20 plastic bags off of the beach. Anything from small candy wrappers, ice bags, grocery bags all the way up to large trash bags. It's just unbelievable how much trash we find on the beach. I'd like to get on my soap box now and say...the ocean is NOT a trash can!

Click on the journal link to read prior entries.