Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Sunny-side

So tired...

I have a bunch of ideas for fun blogs but just about all my brain can handle right now is a random picture from the Japan Files. And in keeping with the apparent theme this week...

(I, sadly, did not take this photo)

This is a sunfish. According to 'teh interwebs' a sunfish has an average length of 5.9 ft and an average weight of 2,200 lb, 'although individuals up to 10.8 ft in length 14 ft across the fin and weighing up to 5,100 lb have been observed.' Basically, it's huge. The heaviest bony fish in the world.

(this, one, I did... sadly)

And here, it's shoved into a 10 ft wide by 8 ft deep tank at the Matsushima Bay Aquarium (click on this; it takes you to a website where you can watch live video of some of the exhibits). The tank was so small the walls had to be covered by a dark tarp and the glass by clear plastic so that the sunfish wouldn't hurt itself by running in to the concrete walls. See, sunfish are found primarily out in the open ocean. Because of this, sunfish aren't really built for slowing down, stopping and turning in a speedy manner.

(sadly, this is not that sunfish)

Apparently this poor fellow had been running into the walls so much, they had to put up the tarps to prevent him from smashing his already mutilated face into sides of the tank. Sadly, this story doesn't end well. The last time I visited the, he was gone, replaced by a new, smaller sunfish.

Now I'm tired and sad.

3 comments:

Elliot Cowan said...

I've seen footage of this fish (well, another one, not this one in particular), floating on it's side on the surface of the ocean.
It had a bunch of seagulls standing on it picking parasites out of it's skin.
Nice!

Liesje said...

With David Attenborough narrating? That's my favorite of the Blue Planet series!

Elliot Cowan said...

Yerp - that's it : )