Curious Inhabitants of the Gulf Stream 
By DR. JOHN T. NICHOLS, Curator of Recent Fishes 
American Museum of Natural History 
W E THINK of tropical seas as 
the home of a gaudily colored as¬ 
semblage 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 (Color Plate, page 177), one 
of the most degenerate of true fishes, 
threads the hidden passages among the 
coral over which Blue Angel (Color Plate, 
page 176) and red, green, or parti-colored 
Parrot-fish (Color Plate, page 182) 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 is 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, however, their numbers must be 
conserved. 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 
OF LIFE IN THE GULF 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. 
Inasmmch 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 FISHES 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 represcnra- 
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 {Chce- 
todipterus Jaber) (Color Plate, page 176) 
on the New Jersey coast and a little 
Butterfly Fish {Chcetodon ocellatus) (Color 
Plate, page 177) 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 
