NECWA News Blog

So often we post ocean sunfish carcasses that wash ashore on Cape Cod beaches. Recently however, Sabrina Fletcher sent us these photos of a "living" sunfish that she encountered approximately 30 miles offshore from the boat landing at Murr ... ells Inlet. Sabrina wrote that "this fish let us cruise up to him/her on our boat, I reached out and it let me pet its top fin, was AMAZING! It let us hover near it and observe and capture these photos for over 15 minutes before it drifted off to the deep!" Thanks Sabrina for sending these photos to NEBShark and a llowing us to post them on Facebook and our blog. Nice to have pictures and encounters with live and healthy sunfish. They are so beautiful and deserve our full attention and admiration! Send your photos and sighting information to our community-sighting network called NEBShark (New England Basking Shark Project). We will include your sighting information into our database which is helping us learn more a...

This afternoon, Krill, Leah and Nick traveled to the Cape to find a dead ocean sunfish that had stranded on Mants Beach in Brewster, MA. One of the local residents, Kathy, called the IFAW Marine Mammal Rescue Program to report this animal and they passed the information along to NEBShark, the community-sighting network for basking sharks and ocean sunfish that is maintained by NECWA . Bob Prescott, Director of Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary had also come across this carcass the night before as he was conducting night patrols for cold-stunned sea turtles. Bob reported back to Krill that this carcass was quite large, in fact, one of the largest he has seen. And he was right! When the NECWA team arrived on site and found the carcass just below the high tide line, no one could believe just how big this animal really was. From tip of snout to tip of tail, this carcass was close to 8 feet in length. This is the largest ocean sunfish carcass that has been examined by NECWA staff sinc...

After Tammy and Krill necropsied the ocean sunfish at Cole Road Beach, they headed to Town Neck Beach in Sandwich, MA to check on another dead ocean sunfish reported just off the boardwalk area. NECWA intern Nick and good friend Peter met Krill and Tammy at the Town Neck parking lot. From there, they headed out to the beach on the bay side to look for the sunfish. They were able to meet up with Holly and her beautiful dog Ruby, who had reported this ocean sunfish carcass a few days ago. Like Steve in Eastham, Holly was keeping on eye on this carcass to keep Krill updated on its position. Unfortunately for the NECWA team, this carcass was at the base of the boardwalk and within easy access. But by the time the team arrived, the carcass had been moved down the beach quite some distance by the extreme high tides. Holly, Ruby and their friends joined the team as we walked down the beach in search of the ocean sunfish. The trio of dogs were having a great time on the beach and it was ...

Today, Krill and Tammy (one of our NECWA interns) met Steve down at Cole Road Beach in Eastham to find an ocean sunfish carcass that Steve had recently reported to NEBShark (New England Basking Shark Project at www.nebshark.org). This season, NECWA staff and interns have responded to over 20 reports of dead ocean sunfish that have stranded on Cape Cod beaches. Although we haven't been able to find every carcass that was reported, we have documented each sighting in our database. Assisting with ocean sunfish Level A (external exam) and necropsy (internal exam) activities is a great learning experience for Tammy and the many other NECWA interns who are involved in this research project. This was Tammy's second ocean sunfish stranding and she was able to conduct most of the Level A examination (photo-documentation and body measuring) as well as assist Krill with the necropsy. This ocean sunfish did not have a thick layer of reticulated collagen under the skin. The thickness ...

After the morning's Seal & Seabird cruise, Krill and Nick stopped by the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to see Bob Prescott about a report of a dead ocean sunfish that washed ashore at Linell Landing. When they arrived, they found Bob in the Nature Center's wet lab getting 5 live Kemp ridley sea turtles ready for transport to a rehab facility in Quincy. These endangered sea turtles had recently cold-stunned and washed ashore on various Cape beaches over the Thanksgiving holiday. To learn more, please read the article at the end of this post that was just posted today on Cape Cod Times online. This article provides an overview of the sea turtle rescues this season. Bob Prescott is the Director of MA Audubon at Wellfleet Bay and a long-time friend and supporter of NECWA. Bob has been instrumental in helping Krill with ocean sunfish necropsies and internal examinations. Not only is Bob extremely knowledgeable about many marine animals, but he truly enjoys learning about...