Tropicals in New England waters

[gfisher4792]

Hi all,

I've heard of some people catching tropicals during the summer and adding them to their salt water tanks (One guy I met showed me a pair of boxfish he caught). I'm not thinking of hunting tropicals, but I was curious if anyone out their has any experiences they'd like to share.

 

[Soggy]

No experience, but...

Fort Wetherhill in Jamestown, RI is very near the Gulf Stream. In the warmer months, fish and eggs from the south get caught in the stream and they hatch up here, live for a few months then die in the winter. I've seen a few colorful fish down in Jamestown, so it's possible!

 

[Fly N Dive]

i know someone who was boating in maine and came upon a ocean sunfish!!! they said it was very cool!!

 

[raviepoo]

.....the 2 ton thing that looks like a giant, white, bulbous head?

It's not tropical.

I've never had the privledge of seeing one but I've been told (by someone who has been diving for 46 years) that they're not all that uncommon in the Northeast.

Fly N Dive once bubbled...
i know someone who was boating in maine and came upon a ocean sunfish!!! they said it was very cool!!

 

[mam6669]

i have seen them many times boating around MA/ME.
they are very cool.
the first thing you see is a fin above water kinda like a shark fin but when you get close you see the whole fish, they will often turn on there side and stare at you w/ a giant eye...

 

[Spectre]

I hit something a few years ago. It was about 8 in the morning, and dead calm [we were out fishing, and saw something about a half mile away; we cruised up to it to find that it was a styrofoam coffee cup].

Anyway, my buddy was stowing some gear as I headed off to another spot. I started moving and cranked a turn to get motoring in the right direction and *thud*. I looked back and saw a fin flop up above the water.

Turned around and went back. Nothing there. We guessed a basking shark at the time, but the more I think about it over the years, the more I suspect it was a mola mola.

 

[jan]

I have seen many in Rhode Island in august and sepetember while freediving / spearfishing off of Sakonnet point. the only ones I could reconize were trigger fish although I had seen a few other types I new were not locals I just never looked them up to see what they were.
Jan

 

[Rick L]

I swam with one last summer heres a link to my dive report!
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14624&highlight=mola
Rick L

 

[wb416]

AaronBBrown once bubbled...
No experience, but...

Fort Wetherhill in Jamestown, RI is very near the Gulf Stream.

I thought the Gulf Stream took a turn toward England near Cape Hatteras, and that all coastal water north of that was "nutured" by the Labrador current.

 

[Soggy]

cwb once bubbled...


I thought the Gulf Stream took a turn toward England near Cape Hatteras, and that all coastal water north of that was "nutured" by the Labrador current.

Could be. All I know is that Jamestown is warmer than it "should" be due to warm water flowing in from the south. Perhaps it isn't the Gulf stream, but that's what I have been told.