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The Cold Water Fish That Looks Dead, But Isn't · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Imagine seeing something the size of a car floating on its side in the ocean.
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  It looks dead.
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  It looks broken even.
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  And somehow it's one of the largest fish on Earth.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, your weekday ocean news update.
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  If you care about staying informed on the ocean every single weekday,
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  hit that follow button right now on your favorite podcast app so
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  you do not miss tomorrow's story.
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  This week, we are gonna be talking about all the wonderful things
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  that cold water brings, especially when we talk about species.
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  Today, we are gonna be focusing in on the fascinating species called the
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  mola mola, or, uh, the ocean sunfish.
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  Tomorrow, we're gonna be talking about one of my favorite types of
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  sharks that's involved in Canada.
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  We're going to focus a lot on Canadian waters.
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  And of course, we're gonna talk about leatherback sea turtle, which
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  we get here every once in a while.
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  And then we're gonna be talking about some fun things that I like to do.
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  One of the best things I like to do is jumping from tide pool to
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  tide pool to see what's in them.
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  That's all gonna be on this week's episode.
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  And then we interview Kirsty Burnett, who's a coworker of mine
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  at Pisces Oceans, which is the sponsor of this episode, by the way.
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  We're gonna be talking about her love for the ocean, and especially in temperate,
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  colder waters, and how she grew up around it, how she did studies around
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  it, and how she loves being in it.
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  Whether you're under it or above it, you can still enjoy cold water species.
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  And we're doing this as a part of celebrating Oceans Day,
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  which is, technically June 8th.
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  It'll be a week from today, but we're gonna be talking about cold
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  water for the next two weeks.
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  It's going to be a lot of fun.
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  This is the first time in a while that I'm celebrating Oceans Day
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  working with an oceans team, and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
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  But let's get into today, 'cause today we're gonna be answering the
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  question that perfectly captures why cold water oceans are so fascinating.
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  Why does one of the strangest fish on Earth spend part of its
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  life in Canadian cold waters?
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  And of course, what can this bizarre animal teach us about the ocean?
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  So if you've never seen a sunfish before, you're not alone.
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  Marine biologist Kirsty Burnett, who I talked to on Friday, says it's
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  one of those animals that people simply don't believe it exists
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  until they see a picture of it.
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  And to be honest, she's right.
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  The ocean sunfish, also known as the mola mola, looked like someone designed a fish
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  and forgot to finish it, to be honest.
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  It has this giant flattened body, this tiny, tiny little mouth.
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  In fact, it looks kinda like a baby if you really look at it.
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  No obvious tail, and it often floats sideways on ocean surface,
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  which is kind of interesting.
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  The first time I saw one, I was in Nova Scotia.
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  I honestly thought something was wrong with it.
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  I thought it was a dead animal.
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  And so when I went to the surface, like we were in a boat, we went over there just
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  to see what it was, it started to move.
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  And I realized I was looking at one of the weirdest animals I'd ever seen,
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  the ocean sunfish, or the Mola mola.
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  And what's even stranger is how successful these fish are.
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  The ocean sunfish can weigh more than a ton.
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  They are among the heaviest bony fish on the planet.
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  And despite looking awkward, they're found throughout the oceans around
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  the world, including cold temperate waters like those off of Atlantic
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  Canada, where I first spotted one.
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  Now, here's where things get a little interesting.
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  For years, scientists wondered why sunfish spend so much time at the surface.
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  Are they trying to get a tan?
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  Are they sunbathing?
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  Are they warming up?
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  Like, why would a fish that can dive hundreds of meters deep
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  suddenly lie sideways in the sun.
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  A 2019 study led by Professor Takashi Nakamura used advanced tracking tags
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  to follow ocean sunfish movements and discovered that these fish
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  regularly dive into colder, darker waters while searching for food.
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  After those dives, they often return to the surface, likely helping
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  them warm up again before they dive their next excursion, I guess.
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  In other words, that strange floating behavior isn't random.
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  It's part of their survival strategy.
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  The fish is essentially recharging.
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  It's like almost like a battery.
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  And suddenly what looks bizarre actually makes perfect sense.
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  But that still doesn't answer the big question.
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  Why come to cold water at all?
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  Really, the answer is food.
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  Cold water oceans may not have coral reefs, they may not have
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  clear crystal tropical water, but they are incredibly productive.
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  I think sometimes that gets missed a lot with how important they are.
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  Nutrients from deeper water fuel plankton blooms.
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  Those plankton support jellyfish, and jellyfish happen to be one of the
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  favorite foods of the ocean sunfish.
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  That's why cold oceans can attract so many animals.
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  Whales come here, leatherback sea turtles come here, sea birds come
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  here, and sunfish come here too.
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  They're all following the food.
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  A 2001 study led by Dr. Marianne Nyegaard found that ocean sunfish often
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  concentrate in highly productive feeding areas where prey is abundant, reinforcing
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  the idea that these giant fish are closely linked to productive systems.
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  That means when you see a sunfish off Nova Scotia, you're not just
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  seeing a weird fish, you're seeing evidence of a healthy food web.
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  Imagine that, seeing this massive animal just like almost look
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  like it's dead at the surface thinking, " No, that's a dead fish.
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  No, actually, that's not a dead fish.
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  That's a fish that's alive, that's recharging to go back
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  down in these productive waters so it can be even healthier."
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  That's a healthy system we're seeing there.
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  So you're seeing a result of plankton, currents, nutrients,
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  and countless ecological connections all working together.
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  Now, it's productive.
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  That's what we love about cold water, it's productive.
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  You may not get the clear crystal waters because there's so much
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  plankton, and because it just has all these different colors.
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  Like, whether it be a really, really dark blue, sometimes a little
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  brown, sometimes a little green.
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  It all depends on what's in the water.
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  And, you know, this is something that's really productive.
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  It's really good, just like this episode and just like this podcast that
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  we bring you each and every weekday.
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  And if you find that you're getting value from this podcast, I want you
• 5:54
  to hit that follow button so you don't miss tomorrow's episode, where we're
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  gonna be talking about one of the most favorite sharks that people have in
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  the temperate waters, and I think that's something that you should check out.
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  So hit that follow button right now.
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  Now, one of my favorite things about ocean sunfish is that they challenge
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  our assumptions about the ocean.
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  People often think the most exciting marine life lives in tropical reefs.
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  Like, everybody who wants to go diving will go diving in tropical reefs.
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  And tropical reefs are incredible, don't get me wrong, but cold water
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  oceans have their own magic.
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  Where else can you find a fish that looks like a floating dinner plate,
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  weighs more than a car, dives hundreds of meters into the darkness, and then
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  comes back to the surface to sunbathe?
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  The answer is right here in cold Canadian waters.
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  And that's why Oceans Week is such a great reminder.
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  A reminder that the ocean isn't amazing only in the places that,
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  you know, have travel brochures.
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  It's amazing everywhere
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  especially in the places people often overlook, like Nova Scotia.
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  You don't have to go diving in Nova Scotian waters to see
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  all these wonderful things.
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  You can just see it on the surface, a mola mola just sunbathing.
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  It's pretty cool.
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  That ocean sunfish is proof that cold water oceans are anything but boring.
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  So the next time, you know, you think about these oceans, think
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  about they're full of surprises.
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  They're full of life, and full of animals that seem almost impossible
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  until you see them for yourself.
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  So if you ever have a chance to go to the Atlantic Ocean, whether you're
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  in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, PEI, or Prince Edward Island for those who
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  don't know, New Brunswick, even Quebec, you're seeing the Atlantic Ocean.
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  If you're in Canada, I highly recommend that you go there.
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  Even if you're in the northeast of the United States, highly recommend
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  that you go to the Atlantic and be able to see the whales, the
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  dolphins, the porpoises, the seals.
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  You're gonna see mola molas.
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  You're gonna see potentially like, leatherback sea turtles, sharks, all
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  these different animals that are there in these wonderfully productive waters.
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  So that's the episode for today.
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  If you enjoyed this episode, I want you to thank Pisces Oceans.
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  They have been helpful not only in sponsoring this episode and being a
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  part of this episode, but helping so many companies, so many non-profit
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  organizations, so many Indigenous groups to be able to manage grants,
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  to be able to strategize for different projects, to be able to help them
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  communicate their message, so they can not only get more funding, but
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  they can just spread their message and scale up their message to make you
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  understand how important the ocean is.
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  And I think that's something that is fun for all of us that work at Pisces
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  Oceans, including myself and Kirsty and Natalie and Melissa, who are our co-CEOs.
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  These are some amazing times that we get to work in.
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  We need ocean people to work in it and the group that I'm a part of now is,
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  they're fantastic, and we love to work on ocean projects and help them scale
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  and help them get funding and help them manage their grants and help them
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  communicate and help them strategize.
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  So if you wanna go and check it out, if you have an ocean project
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  that needs a little bit of help communicating, or you need help in
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  managing grants, go to piscesoceans.ca.
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  Check it out there, or you can contact me in my socials in the show notes.
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  All of it, all that stuff will be in the show notes.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow when we're talking about probably one of the most
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  popular sharks in the Atlantic right now.
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  Always, I guess, and probably not the one that you think, but it's still popular.
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  We're gonna talk about that tomorrow, so don't forget to join us.
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  Thank you again.
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  My name is Andrew Lewin, your host of this episode of the How
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  to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow, and happy conservation.