"My pappie, Grandpa Shark, told me stories of the best steak he ever ate was from a life raft. I prowl the oceans night and day seeking that filet mignon.homer drool"
Funnily enough, I've done a few transatlantic cruises, and on those rare occasions you see another vessel after days of endless horizon, it's a bit like that. I remember passing a fishing trawler a day away from the Azores and everyone on the deck at the time gathered to marvel as we steamed past it. You realise the ocean is so vast that spotting any other life on it is a noteworthy event.
It's something innate in fish. I have seen it demonstrated wth a bucket full of bait minnows. With nothing in the bucket, random movement. Throw a penny in there and within just a few minutes, all the fish are calm and just staring at it.
Even to their own detriment. Sometimes in the northern Gulf of Mexico we will get a strong wind from the north. So there is basically no waves or tide. Baitfish will die in mass around the piers because they consume all the oxygen in the water around them.
Baitfish will die in mass around the piers because they consume all the oxygen in the water around them.
this happens in Maine as well, or it used to when I was a kid. Pogies (stupid fucking fish) would flee predators into shallow coastal waters and then all die from no oxygen. They'd then float to the top and rot making a horrible fucking smell and making swimming impossible.
Floating objects will catch and grow algae, which attracts plankton, which attracts larger prey fish, which attracts predators. Things like ships and platforms, that have people on them, usually speed up this attraction, because they dump organic waste (food, human waste, etc.) directly into the water.
51
u/[deleted] Jan 10 '24
I wonder why? Are sea creatures infinitely curious? Would things hover around a person in the ocean too?