Strange Fish
THE LAST TIME Captain Richard Rutland attempted to fish for snook, he had to travel nearly 11 hours from Mobile, Alabama, to the tropical waters of Everglades National Park, in south Florida. That was one of the nearest places he could hope to find such a fish, known for fighting hard on the hook. Lately, though, it’s looking like Rutland can stay closer to home: snook and other warm-water fish are finding their way north, and showing up on social media along the way. “We caught a PERMIT while fishing for sheepshead with nightcrawlers,” a Mississippi angler recently posted on Facebook. “We thought I had caught a state record, not because it was huge but because this fish is so rare for MS waters.” “To say I was SHOCKED today would be an understatement,” another fisherman recently posted. “Not only did we catch double digit pompano numbers but we managed to land this Alabama bonefish!” People are swapping stories and sharing photos of new fish, sometimes asking for help identifying fish they’ve never seen before. And this has researchers intrigued. Tropical fish like snook, bonefish, and permit have been showing up more often in states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, shattering previous size records and sometimes establishing completely new ones… The recent arrival of new species, due to the “tropicalization” of the waters, has researchers looking into what impact they will have on native plants and animals. Journalist Jason Ruffin writes about how “tropicalization” is upending Gulf Coast ecosystems that millions of people rely on.
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