Tag: NOAA Fisheries

Boat propeller found on seafloor 100 miles offshore is a mystery

NOAA Fisheries biologists find it ‘incredible to have that $5,000 piece of metal in the middle of the ocean show up on our camera.’

On a fishing survey trip in the fall, NOAA Fisheries biologists caught Atlantic spiny dogfish, white hake, cusk, barndoor skates, Acadian redfish, monkfish and Atlantic cod, among other species they would typically expect to find.

What they didn’t expect to find was a boat propeller sitting on the ocean floor more than 100 miles offshore.

How it got there is a mystery.

At every sampling station of the Longline Survey Trip aboard the F/V Mary Elizabeth, they send a camera down to the seafloor to record what it looks like.

At one sampling station, the camera bounced on the bottom right next to a 3-foot-long propeller, about the size of propeller the 60-foot Mary Elizabeth features.

It was lying among the rocks, sea stars and sea anemones, as reported in the NOAA Science Blog, which also has a short clip of the camera landing next to the prop.

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Phil Lynch, Captain of the Mary Elizabeth, was shocked.

“What are the chances that we dropped the camera right on top of this thing, well over 100 miles from shore?” Lynch said. “I don’t even know of a single person who has lost their propeller at sea, let alone to have at that distance. It’s just incredible to have that $5,000 piece of metal in the middle of the ocean show up on our camera.”

Biologist Emma Fowler blogged about all the findings on the survey that began at Georges Bank, around 200 nautical miles from the departing port of Scituate, Massachusetts. They then moved westward with the survey.

Fowler, too, was amazed by the propeller find.

“It makes you wonder about the poor soul who lost it—so far away from land—and how long they waited for rescue,” Fowler wrote. “Not too many boats make it this far east.

“The chances that we would drop a camera in the exact same spot have to be incredibly low. It makes me excited for what we’ll find on the next trip.”

Photos of monkfish, Acadian redfish and boat propeller courtesy of NOAA Fisheries/Emma Fowler and Dave McElroy.

‘Twilight Zone’ sea creature washes ashore after sonic boom

Video footage shows a menacing-looking sea creature with a gaping mouth full of fang-like teeth that mysteriously washed ashore alive.

A menacing-looking sea creature with a gaping mouth full of fang-like teeth and typically found in the “Ocean Twilight Zone” mysteriously washed ashore alive on a Southern California beach last week.

Davey’s Locker Sportfishing and Whale Watching posted rare video of the lancetfish squirming about on the sand near the edge of the shoreline in Laguna Beach. Goff Tours, a professional Surf School in Laguna Beach, captured the footage.

“Creature from the Twilight Zone!” Davey’s Locker announced on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/DaveysLockerSportfishing/videos/449228673478683

The Ocean Twilight Zone is described by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as a layer of water that stretches around the globe and lies about 650 to 3,300 feet below the ocean surface, just beyond the reach of sunlight.

Though the lancetfish has been found in waters as shallow as 10 fathoms in Oregon and the Gulf of Mexico, it is primary found in that Twilight Zone and beyond, from 328 to 6,560 feet.

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The appearance of this odd sea creature on an Orange County beach remains unexplained, but it emerged on shore within minutes of a mysterious sonic boom, Goff Tours reported.

“After capturing this video, the fish was pulled safely back into the water, where it swam away, seemingly unharmed,” Davey’s Locker reported.

More from Davey’s Locker:

It’s been identified as a deep-sea Longnose Lancetfish. With gaping fanged jaws, enormous eyes, a sailfin, and a long, slithery body, lancetfish look like they swam right out of prehistoric times. Though the fish itself is not rare, since Longnose lancetfish inhabit all of the planet’s oceans, it is extremely rare to see one of these fish alive along a beach in southern CA.

Growing to more than 7-feet long, lancetfish are one of the largest deep-sea fishes, swimming to depths more than a mile below the sea surface. Lancetfish are notorious cannibals and also feed voraciously on many other fish and invertebrates. Many descriptions of new species of fishes, squids, and octopuses have been based on specimens collected from lancetfish stomachs, since food within their stomachs are often found in a nearly pristine state, barely digested. Scientists with NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center speculate that lancetfish may eat as much as they can whenever they find food, then digest it later when they need it. Their stomachs provide a window into the rarely studied twilight zone in the ocean, where the fish mainly hunt.

Fisherman who pled guilty to cruel act on fish is sentenced

A man who used a power saw to cut off the nose of a live smalltooth sawfish and later pled guilty to it has learned his fate from the court.

A fisherman who used a power saw to cut off the nose of a live smalltooth sawfish and later pled guilty of killing the endangered species has learned his fate in court.

Chad Ponce, 38, of Jacksonville, Fla., was sentenced to 80 hours of community service and two years probation, and fined $2,000 for the cruel act, which was confirmed by a joint investigation by NOAA Fisheries and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Fisheries revealed Thursday.

Ponce, who initially denied any wrongdoing, had faced up to a year in federal prison and a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty in November. A judge sentenced him on Dec. 19, but it only became public a couple days ago.

From NOAA Fisheries:

The St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office and FWC received a tip reporting the capture and gross mishandling of a large (12-14 foot) smalltooth sawfish off the coast of Ponte Vedra, Florida, on July 18, 2018. The sawfish was incidentally caught in one of Ponce’s commercial shrimp trawl nets earlier that day.

Upon retrieval of the net, Ponce, captain of the Triton II, first attempted to use a hacksaw on the rostrum, but witnesses report he tossed that saw into the ocean when it didn’t work. Ponce then used a power saw to cut the rostrum off the live animal. Another fisherman in a vessel adjacent to the trawler witnessed the incident and reported it to FWC’s Report Sawfish for Science Hotline.

Ponce then tossed the smalltooth sawfish back into the ocean.

Photo of the smalltooth sawfish showing injury associated with recent rostrum removal in the Florida Keys. Photo: NOAA Fisheries

NOAA and FWC immediately opened an investigation, and FWC sent an officer offshore to the location of the Triton II on the day of the report. DNA evidence connecting Ponce to the crime was gathered during the investigation.

The rostrum of the sawfish is used to locate and disable its prey, and is believed to also carry sensory cells that assist in it orienting itself to time and location. The smalltooth sawfish cannot survive without its rostrum.

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“The smalltooth sawfish is one of five sawfish species worldwide and the only one still found in U.S. waters,” NOAA Fisheries stated. “All five species of sawfishes are in danger of extinction and listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, as well as some international authorities.”

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia Commons, Getty Images and NOAA Fisheries, in that order.

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