The οceaп still hides maпy secrets aпd straпge sea creatures οf differeпt sizes.
Swordfish is nearly 5 meters long
A nearly 5 meter long swordfish washed up on the coast of Florida, USA in April 2021. Although dead, the swordfish with a record length was still brought back for scientists to study.
This swordfish is 4.9 meters long and is female. Scientists discovered many eggs the size of softballs in its reproductive organs, indicating that this is an adult fish that has undergone reproduction. After research, scientists concluded that this animal has lived longer than 14 years and is the oldest swordfish ever discovered.
Fish stuck in jellyfish body
The dead jellyfish that dot the coast are usually nothing special. However, in August 2021, a strange case was discovered off the coast of Padstow in Cornwall, UK. A local photographer found a dead jellyfish on the beach with a fish intact inside the jellyfish’s transparent body.
According to scientists’ predictions, the fish was attacked by the compass jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella) with venom and swallowed before it washed ashore and died. This explains why the fish inside remains intact when the jellyfish dies.
Giant moonfish washed up on Oregon beach, USA
The carcass of a giant moonfish washed up on the coast of Oregon, USA in July 2021 and gave visitors here a surprise. The colorful fish weighing up to 45 kg and 1 meter long with an orange-red color with silver scales and yellow eyes has been frozen by scientists for research.
The fact that the moonfish washed up on the coast in this near-Arctic region is a strange thing because their habitat is in the warm waters near the island of Hawaii, USA. Scientists believe that the moonfish’s move closer to the north pole is partly due to global warming causing sea temperatures to rise and causing the species to migrate to cooler water.
A truck-sized Basking shark
An 8-meter-long male Basking shark washed up on the shores of Bremen, Maine, USA in January 2021, surprising local fishermen with its pickup truck-sized body. This Basking shark is native to warm waters and is the second largest fish in the ocean.
Despite its tremendous size, the Basking shark is a harmless marine creature to humans. They mainly prefer to travel through the water with their mouths open to feed on zooplankton and small invertebrates through their complex gills. The cause of the shark’s death is still unknown.
Amazon’s ‘river monster’ dies in Florida
When locals in Florida, USA found the rotting carcass of a dead Arapaima, known as the Amazon “river monster,” near the Gulf of Mexico, many worried that the monster could become a latest invasive animals in their state.
Arapaima fish is one of the largest freshwater fish in the world, can be 3 meters long and weigh up to 200 kg. It only breeds in nests on floodplains and spends precious time and energy tending to its young. This species does not mature until it is about 1.5m long, Solomon David, an aquatic ecologist at Nicholls State University in Louisiana, told Live Science.
Although it has not been determined whether this species can develop and become an invasive species in Florida, the fact that a fish typical of the Amazon region washed ashore in the Gulf of Mexico is a large unexplained anomaly.