On most of my dive expeditions, I'm just going down to observe. But today I'm on
a rescue mission.
I'm going to rescue some juvenile fish. This might be hard to believe, but if I don't
go get them, they will surely die.
Hi, I'm Jonathan Bird and welcome to my world!
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You see, every year millions of tropical fish eggs from the Caribbean get caught in the
gulf stream and take a ride up north where they hatch and grow for several months.
And a lot of these juvenile fish end up here off the coast of Rhode Island, a long way
from home, more than a thousand miles from the Caribbean. The problem is that when winter
comes and this water gets cold, they'll die.
So, every year the New England Aquarium Dive Club organizes a tropical fish rescue. People
come from miles around try their hand at collecting tropical fish for the New England Aquarium
exhibits. So I've come down and give it a try, but I'm a little concerned because
I have photograph lot of fish, but never caught fish. I really don't know how to do it.
I'm concerned, actually hurting the fish. Michael Schruben who is an expert in collecting
tropical fish is going to help me out. Michael can you tell me is this hard? What do I need
to know?
It's not hard. The biggest thing is to be calm. I've got all the tools and know where
the fish are. I can show you how to do it. Want to go?
All right! Let's go!
All right Michael so show me this gear you have here it's kind of interesting.
Well it's funny...the various evolution of catching tropicals. This is what I started
out with, which is a soda bottle with end cut off of it. If this were a rock you put
the soda bottle down and you just use your hand and get the fish in and you can see what
kind of fish he is. This is the way I normally catch fish and have been for a long time.
And what it is-- it's a net and trick is this is the containers that everything ends
up in that I want. And it always keeps water going through. There are holes in there about
to keep the fish back out and if I don't want it I can cap it off and let the animal
out. The valve...
1.
So we put on our suits, check our gear, and head into the water.
The fish are small, and they hide in the rocks in very shallow water, so Michael inches along
looking closely at the bottom in search of them.
Then his eye catches a juvenile butterfly fish—a baby tropical fish that looks out
of place in New England.
I watch as Michael easily catches the fish in his net. Does the fish have any idea of
its fate as it descends through Michael's apparatus? Who knows? But one thing is certain;
this little fish will die if we don't rescue it.
Now it is my turn. I grab my net and start looking. Then I see what looks like a pea
with a face, bobbing in the water. It's a juvenile Boxfish.
I coax it into my net. This fish is so tiny, I am afraid of hurting it, so, as you can
imagine, I'm very gentle. I slowly work the fish all the way down to my bottle.
While we are looking for more fish to rescue, I am startled to see a fully-grown sea horse
battered by the strong surge. I thought sea horses were exclusively tropical fish, but
Michael says no.
I don't believe he is. A lot of people believe he belongs in our water and can live in our
cold water all the way up to Nova Scotia. It is something that most people never, never
see and wouldn't believe you could see in the North Atlantic.
Just to be sure, we decide to rescue him and check which species he is. He clings to the
algae with his tail, and I have to coax him into the bottle with my hand. I could easily
hurt him so I'm super careful. To try and make him more comfortable I bring some of
the algae he likes into the bottle.
He seems too large to be a juvenile, so I'm betting he's a full-time resident of these
northern waters.
After the dive, we check out the fish we rescued. Michael keeps them alive in a small aquarium
until they reach their final home, at the New England Aquarium
They will start out in a smaller tank, but as they grow, these fish will eventually end
up in the 200,000 gallon giant ocean tank--the main attraction at the New England Aquarium.
These three amigos will be on their way to the New England Aquarium within hours.
The Seahorse as it turns out is a local, so we will let him go.
It's been a long and perilous journey from the Caribbean. But thanks to the many volunteers,
these fish have been spared a certain death from the cold winter water here in New England.
Turns out, these guys will survive their ordeal and probably even thrive in their new homes.
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