Gulf Stream Oddities in Delaware
The gulf stream always brings us a few oddities. We have seen many a gag and snowy groupers, lookdowns, pompano, and other oddities that are common place these days during the end of the summer. Ethan Henry was helping a buddy of his check crab pots today and they found this spot fin butterfly fish. These are from the Caribbean reefs and Florida waters. I used to sell these in my saltwater aquarium store back in the day. This is not a incredibly rare find but it is very uncommon. I am sure more than one has been found this year. You would be surprised how many different types of reef fish make it to Delaware, and further north. A Townsend angelfish was caught in Scotland years ago, it traveled that far with the gulf stream in summer. If these tropical fish do not return to the Southern waters they will die once the temperatures change for fall into winter. Many of these fish are sold in the aquarium industry and we used to go to places like Virginia beach and run seine nets to catch all kinds of Florida reef tropical fish for our aquariums.