INTERESTING CITIZENS OF THE 

 GULF STREAM 



By Dr. John T. Nichols, Curator of Recent Fishes 



WE THINK of tropical seas as 

 the home of a gaudily colored 

 assemblage of fishes. In a 

 sense, this first impression is correct. 

 Active, short-bodied, elastic-scaled, spiny- 

 finned, bright-colored species here occupy 

 the center of the stage. 



As a matter of fact, tropical shore- 

 lines are the great metropolis of the 

 world's fish life. The evil-visaged snake- 

 like Moray (Plate III), one of the most 

 degenerate of true fishes, threads the 

 hidden passages among the coral over 

 which Blue Angel (Plate II) and red, 

 green, or parti-colored Parrot-fish (Plate 

 VIII) are swimming. 



Out on the open sand, spotted floun- 

 ders lie, matching their background so as 

 to be well nigh invisible, or little gray 

 gobies move about like shadows, eager to 

 escape detection. 



Countless varieties of fishes are hiding 

 in every patch of weed. Schools of sil- 

 versides, anchovies, and herring dart 

 through the stretches of open water. 



It is their function, in the scheme of 

 things, to feed on the minute organisms 

 so abundant in sea water, to multiply 

 prodigiously, and in turn form a basic 

 food supply for a great variety of larger 

 fishes. 



To do this and at the same time con- 

 tribute something to the forces of evolu- 

 tion, their numbers must be conserved, 

 however. Their silvery sides render 

 them difficult of observation by hungry 

 eyes below, and they are available only 

 to the quick and the keen. 



ENORMOUS QUANTITY AND DIVERSITY OE 

 LIFE IN THE GULE STREAM 



Over the heat equator warm air is con- 

 stantly rising. Heavier cooler air from 

 higher latitudes flows steadily in to take 

 its place, and, deflected by the earth's ro- 

 tation, becomes the easterly trade winds, 

 before which millions of waves, reflecting 

 the clear deep blue of the ocean depths 

 under their white crests, go dancing to 

 the westward. 



The whole surface of the tropical At- 

 lantic moves, drifting toward the coast 

 of America, is caught and turned about 

 in the Gulf of Mexico, and shoots out 

 past the Keys and the east coast of Flor- 

 ida as the Gulf Stream. 



Inasmuch as many young marine fishes 

 and other animals regularly drift in ocean 

 currents, it is easy to understand what 

 an enormous quantity and diversity of 

 life the Gulf Stream must carry. 



Furthermore, such waters, when they 

 enter the Gulf, have already flowed under 

 a tropical sun for many, many miles. 

 The Gulf of Mexico is not a place for 

 them to lose calories, and Gulf Stream 

 water has a considerably higher temper- 

 ature than the 79 degrees found, in gen- 

 eral, at the surface of the open ocean on 

 the Equator. 



TRULY TROPICAL EISHES IN FLORIDA 

 WATERS 



It follows that shores bathed by such 

 water have as truly tropical fishes as if 

 they were situated much farther south. 



Essentially the same fishes extend from 

 Florida to Brazil. Scattered representa- 

 tives of this great tropical fish fauna of 

 the western Atlantic are drifted to the 

 capes of the Carolinas and, to a less ex- 

 tent, in summer, even to New England. 

 We have seen a stray Spade Fish (Chcc- 

 todiptcrus fabcr) (Plate II) on the New 

 Jersey coast and a little Butterfly Fish 

 (Chcctodon ocellatus) (Plate III) washed 

 ashore on the south side of Long Island, 

 New York. 



It is a little over ten years ago that the 

 writer made a first trip to Florida. After 

 a prolonged period of more or less dis- 

 tasteful, though necessary, indoor activ- 

 ities during a northern winter, he found 

 himself suddenly foot-loose on the Miami 

 water-front. 



The yachting party that he was to join 

 here on a collecting trip among the Keys 

 was somewhere up the coast, stuck on a 

 sand-bank. Meanwhile, there was noth- 

 ing to do but sit and swing one's heels. 



00 



