This week’s surprise.
More strange and unprecedented things are happening. Why the fish die off?
My surprise this week is finding so many dead fish on my walks by the shore. All of the fish are the same species, Atlantic menhanden. They’re commonly known as bunker.
Fish are dying and showing up on the shoreline of Long Island, in the Hudson River NY, Connecticut and New Jersey.
Will Healey, spokesman for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said “We believe this is likely due to a natural event, possibly related to cold water temperatures and abnormally high abundance of menhaden within inshore areas for this late in the fall, but we are still investigating,” To find out more details, go here
One theory is the large numbers of bunkers are overgrazing. They’re using up their local food supplies, which results in a die-out. Another theory is that many of the bunkers have missed a cue to migrate, due to warmer water temperatures.
In the food chain, the bunkers are food for large predatory fish, such as bluefish and striped bass.
I have been wondering what other animals might be benefiting. It seems that birds such as eagles and ospreys or whales and seals are having delicious bunker meals.
As our climate is warming, one more tiny piece of evidence may be the huge numbers of dead bunkers.
And of course there are all sorts of fishy conspiracy theories about why the bunker are dying.
For more factual findings, the DEC is collecting fish samples from the East End of Long Island and Hudson River. Stony Brook University’s Marine Animal Disease Laboratory (MADL) are analyzing and evaluating the samples. Preliminary results of their findings will not be available until the samples are fully processed. DEC continues to monitor the event and requests you send any additional reports and pictures to marinefisheries@dec.ny.gov.
What’s the metaphor of the fish die off?
One part dies off and another part benefits. It reminds me when have a negative experience, we can’t see any silver lining. We’re too close to the event.
Once we have some distance then we can grasp other perspectives.
Here’s a simple example, snow. We are having the first wintry snow of the season. Snow brings a host of feelings from delight to overwhelm.
“Oh crap, I have to clear the snow before I can get out of our driveway” is something I hear often. Right now, there’s a silver lining as so many of us are working from home.
I’m wondering instead of experiencing snow as a hassle, can we revel in the beauty of the snow. Even if it’s 13 inches!
We could even go outside, throw a snowball and make a snowman.
I’d love to hear, what unexpected thing did you see, find or do this week?And I’m really interested to hear what’s the metaphor you discover that makes sense to you.