Tropical spotted... on the south shore?!?

[MSilvia]

I was wading at low tide with my 2 year old daughter yesterday at Sandy Beach in Cohasset, and was surprised... no, shocked, to see a bright green tropical fish (that I didn't immediately recognize) swimming frantically around us.

I've seen plenty in Rhode Island, but this must have been one REALLY lost fish to have gone west from Provincetown. Are water temps really that warm out there, and if so, what other unusual things are people seeing?

If not, it was a pretty rare chance sighting (or maybe a cruelly freed pet).

 

[Thalassamania]

Must be a warm core eddy of the Gulf Stream that spun in to shore. I happens fairly often.

 

[augk]

Must be a warm core eddy of the Gulf Stream that spun in to shore. I happens fairly often.

Its probably a good possibility that it swam up the Gulf stream I was at Craigville Beach down on the Cape and the water was so warm it had to be at least 70F . I have only felt water that warm in Greece, Aruba and Maui but never around NE.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/maps/sst/2010071700_highResSst_SNEX.png

NDBC - Station 44020