Ocean Sunfish

It hasn’t much to do with geochemistry, but everything with my fascination for the oceans and what lives in them.

The ocean sunfish as pictured by Adriaen Coenen (http://www.kb.nl/bladerboek/visboek/browse-en/page_150r.html).

The first time my eye was caught by the ocean sunfish, was leafing through a book full of real and fictitious sea monsters by Adriaen Coenen. I bought a copy, and started reading everything about these weirdest of creatures. Also, it became top of my bucket list of animals to see, preferably while diving. Then a few weeks ago I visited Monterey Bay Aquarium and, when entering the Open Sea exhibit, just cried:”An ocean sunfish!” Such a cool and strange thing! It’s not the best of pictures, but here it is:

Ocean sunfish at Montery Bay Aquarium

There is a web cam of the Open Sea exhibit, featuring lots more fascinating fish including massive tuna, where you can see the “swimming head” lazily drift by from time to time:

Sharks

I was watching a documentary on the effect that the film Jaws had on shark populations. They showed an item on growth ring analysis in vertebrae of sharks to determine their age; a very nice application of sclerochronology. Here some more on how it’s done.