Where Fish Are Turning Up These Days

Benjamin Franklin once said, "Fish and visitors stink after three days."

Visitors don't really smell but they can often overstay their welcome. Fish, on the other hand, will develop a bad smell if left for days out of its natural habitat which of course, is water. Some fascinating fish facts that I recently found taken from the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC):

There are as many as 20,000+ species of fish.

The Whale Shark is considered the largest fish with a length of more than 50 feet and weighing several tons.

The Mooray Eel is among the small number of fish that swim backwards while the seahorse is one of the exceptions that swims horizontally.

Most fish are colorblind but can see shades of color (which is why the fishing lure industry has made so many differing colored lures.)

You can read all of the fascinating fish facts here.

All of this fish investigation reminded me of one of the funniest fish cartoons I ever saw. It was the Gary Larson Far Side cartoon where a fire erupts in the fishbowl. The family of fish manages to get out of the bowl safely but the father fish is quoted as saying, "Whoa, that was a close one. Of course, now, we're pretty well screwed." Larson's Far Side cartoons always brought a smile to my face. Gary Larson who lives in Seattle, Washington retired his Far Side cartoons in 1995.

Recently a gardener in Annapolis received a gift from her father in the form of a fish out of water. Ann Wallace Riefe had always admired the scultures in her father's garden and when he offered to do one for her, she was thrilled. You can see it here. Ann's dad, Tom, claims that there are more rivets in this fish tail than in the Brooklyn Bridge. Imagine that.

Ms. Riefe had better keep an eye on her fish sculpture. Just last month a giant fish sculpture standing 5-feet tall was stolen from Lincoln City. The city detectives are assuming that the metal sculpture would be sold as scrap metal. You can read the full story here.

Sources:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070926221130AAinVba

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110223014546AARewYh

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/features/gardening/2011/06/a_fish_out_of_water.html

http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/quotable/singlehtml.htm