One that I had got to in time, however, is the following article about stowaway tsunami fish. Actually, it's about the tsunami of March 11, 2011 that nearly took out the entire northeastern coast of Japan, and while many died, many survived.
Of those survivors, many Japanese people are still displaced, but so too is the indigenous flora and fauna, often hitching a ride on debris and drifting from the east coast of Japan, all the way across the Pacific Ocean to the left coast of the United States an Canada.
Now, while motorcycles, docks, mollusks and other bi-valve creatures have been previously made their way across the waters, this story is about the first example of live fish - striped beak fish (Oplegnathus fasciatus), also known as a barred knifejaw - drifting over, making their way in a drifting boat - an 18-foot (5.5-meter) long skiff. In fact, it's the first example of live vertebrates (creatures with a spine) found in the tsunami debris.
I like fish. I have had an aquarium since I was 4 to whatever age you think I am now (You can read about my FIRST fish HERE). I don't necessarily enjoy eating fish, but I do because I know they are good for me (SEE THIS). I have written a few stories involving fish, and even had a couple of them turned into comic book stories (see HERE).
So... if there's a fishy tale out there that I can present to you, I'm there - hook, line and sinker (no disrespect intended). (I don't mind fishing, I don't catch anything, so no harm no foul.)
The boat - known as the Saisho-Maru was found on March 22, 2013, and had five (5) live fish found in a back compartment of the fiberglass boat.
They survived a journey that I assume a journey I assume took about a year to make. That means they must have food in the boat, and the water must have been refreshed a few times thanks to rains - otherwise poop and urine would have changed the pH to unlivable conditions.
Anyhow, the boat was found floating partially submerged with its stern (the rear) a few feet under water, and this helped form a safe haven for the fish in their lidless container.
Along with the fish, the Saisho-Maru also picked up other creatures, including: algae, crabs, marine worms, scallops, blue mussels and even a sea cucumber. Like I said - a perfect haven for the fish, a 20-30 gallon aquarium.
After being found, the fish were eventually given to the Washington State Fish and Wildlife service, where biologists euthanized four of the five fish for study.
(Ed. Note: Really? Why would you need to kill and study four fish? These poor creatures spent a year surviving - and you euthanize them for study? I suppose you were looking for diseases that might spread into the eco-system off the coast of Washington - but to kill 80 per cent of the fish? Tsk-tsk).
The biologists then gave the surviving fish (I now call 'Lucky Bastard') to the Seaside Aquarium in Oregon, and as of today, only one of the five fish is still alive at the facility - which I am sure did its best to ensure the survival of the others.
Here's the thing - while it is possible that these fish could have been dumped into this sea-going environ at the time of the tsunami near Japan, there IS also a possibility that they could have been picked up as the skiff drifted close to the coasts of the Hawaiian Islands.
I guess the scientists were actually trying to determine the age of the fish - maybe to see if the five that sailed the oceans were on board the entire trip, or picked up along the way. Of course, even if the fish did come aboard (stowaways!) at Hawaii, they would still have traveled some 3,000 miles (4,828 kilometers)!
Previously, scientists did not think that any species could fish survive a 5,000 mile trip from Japan to North America - so if these five did, it would change the way scientists look at the debris pool from Japan, and how some species can move and become an invasive species.
Scientists have said that these fish - even if they were let go in the waters off Oregon or Washington - would have died owing to the water's coldness.
There are estimates of some five million tons of debris dragged from Japan into the Pacific on March 11, 2011, and while most sunk, further estimates peg some 1.5 million tons of that debris floated on the waters, which some of it drifting all the way to the coasts of Alaska, British Columbia, the lower west coast of the U.S. and, of course, Hawaii.
Cheers
Andrew Joseph
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