A gray triggerfish made an unexpected visit to Boothbay Harbor on July 21, managing to get caught in a net after being tempted by a hook baited with a crab, from the dock at Brown’s Wharf.
Quite a few witnesses were present for the event, including Capt. Barry Gibson, who runs the Shark Five charter boat out of Brown’s. Gibson is a longtime editor of Saltwater Sportsman magazine.
On the European side of the Atlantic, triggerfish range as far north as southwestern Scotland. On the American side the gray triggerfish’s normal northern limit is Rhode Island, with a few strays reaching Massachusetts. Harold Brewer of Key Largo, Florida, who sent us the accompanying photograph, suggests that the fish may “surf the Gulf Stream.”
“These things could cause havoc with small lobsters,” Brewer observed. “They have tough mouths and big teeth.”
The triggerfish wasn’t the only marine creature out of place along the coast this summer. A hooded seal showed up unexpectedly near the old ferry landing on Deer Isle in mid August, where local residents and eventually staffers from Allied Whale at the College of the Atlantic (COA) in Bar Harbor observed it. Eventually the seal was taken to an animal rescue organization’s facility in Portland by Rosemarie Seton of COA.
Misplaced or displaced creatures surfaced elsewhere as well. A young moose visited the Fox Islands (see p. 32), allowing herself to be photographed at least once, and a manatee, best known for its slow-moving presence in Florida, made it into New York’s Hudson River in early August. “Seeing a manatee in the Hudson,” opined the New York Times on its editorial page following the reported sighting, “is like seeing a moose in Myrtle Beach.”
— David D. Platt