The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-08-04
CAUGHT AN OCEAN SUNFISH.
Young visitor at the Aquarium Tells OF an
Interesting IAttIe Sea Trim.

There dropped in at the Aquarium the
other day a fine, healthy looking boy Of is
or 30, his face bronzed by wind and weather,
who wanted to see IL he could find in the
Aquarium's collections a fish like one he
saw caught recently while he was making a
little sea trip. He had sailed with a captain
he knsw on a -four masted Baltimore
schooner from Baltimore to Charleston, 8. c..
and thence to this port; his visit to the
Aquarium was made while the schooner was
lying here unloading.
They showed him around, all over the
building. but in all the pools and tanks there
was no fish like the ope he sought. Then
they showed him a lot OF pictures OF fishes
OF the various sorts that frequent the waters
in which the boy had sailed, and presently,
at sight Of one OF them
That's the fish, said the boy. W caught
one like that that weighed 500 pounds. Cap
tain sighted il one day when We were coming
north and he headed the schooner up for 1t
and got out the harpoon inc the mate har-
poonei it and we hauled il on deck
The big fish hat the boy had thus seen
taken and whose general appearance he
had accurately described was an ocean
sunfish. The ocean sunfish is at home In
tropical and sub-tropical waters. but it ooca-
sionslly strays further north; in these waters
one was taken some years g of Rockaway
Beach.
1t is an odd appearing fish, shaped some
what like a globe fiattened at the sides,
making il very deep and thick bodied. 1t
has a tall fin rising from the upper part Of its
body and a long fin depending from the
lower, but instead Of the familiar sort of tail
a. Z. - $1,000 49, - - Ia -
row weavy lin something like a ruffle.
An odd fish, sure enough, IL the ocean
sunfish, and IL grows to large size and to
very considerable weight. The 10y didn't
say that they actually weighed the one thai
they caught on the schooner, but even count
ing its weight at 500 pounds IL wasn't the
biggest ever. Ocean sunflsh have been
taken measuring five or six feet in length
and eight feet deep from tip TO tip Of their
fms extended and weighing from 800 to 800
pounds.
ave hada great time ~harpooning this big
said, and when we had IL lying there on
deck, with all hands looking at il, the
cat came to take a look too-they've got a
big cat aboard that sails with the schooner
And when the cat came along the cook
slipped the end OF it's tail into the queer
fsh's mouth and the fish closed on il and
held the cat fast.
@And that scared the cat, Of course .
but the fish didn't bite its tail very hard.
guess il didn't do it any damage, and in
q minute It let go; and when the cat jumped
the fish whistled!
we caught a porpoise going down inc
I skinned IL to mount II, but l had hard
work keeping that skin away from the cat.
Cats like fish, you know, and wherever
I put that porpoiss skin TO dry the cat would
get at il, even when I tied IL once In tho
rigging. .
$50 I spoke to tho cook about that and
he said, you put a little pepper on IL and
the cat won't trouble it, I got some red
! pepper In the cooks galley and sprinkled q
little OF that on the porpoise skin and laid
IL this time up on top Of the cooks galley.
But the cat found IL there and climbed
You know how cats lick their food before
they begin to eat it2 Well. the ~schooner's
cat did Just that when IL had got up on the
roof Of the galley alongside that porpoise
skin; IL took just n lap along the top
part Of the skin where I'd sprinkled the
red pepper and then 1t jumped OF tho roof
OF the galley down to the deck and turned
somersets and hipfaps and went through
more gymnastics than you'd 500 In a gym
nasium.
But the cook didn't Lot the cat suffer.
He mixed up some condensed milk with
water right away and gave that to tho