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Posts: 759
| Don't know how many of you seen the shark week episode of the big great white shark that swam from islands around Mexico all the way, over 2000 miles of open ocean , to the coast of Hawaii. Why did the fish swim that far? The hosts of the show had no answers. To compare, both fish are apex predators and basically can swim and go wherever they want. Kdawg |
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| kdawg - 11/21/2022 8:32 AM
Don't know how many of you seen the shark week episode of the big great white shark that swam from islands around Mexico all the way, over 2000 miles of open ocean , to the coast of Hawaii. Why did the fish swim that far? The hosts of the show had no answers. To compare, both fish are apex predators and basically can swim and go wherever they want. Kdawg
And the Humpback whales that spend the spring and summer in the waters off Alaska go to waters off Hawaii to have their young and basically don't feed until they return to Alaskan waters. The biologists have known that pattern for decades. They feed constantly when in the coastal waters off Alaska to build fat reserves for the journey across the Pacific. Not all do, my sister has one that frequents the inlet she lives on in SE Alaska. They call him 'no-tail' because when he dives he normally does not show his tail, unlike most. Saw him in early April when I was there to build a shed for them.
I think it is kind of neat that we don't know just why all these creatures do some of the things they do. |
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Posts: 1291
Location: Hayward, Wisconsin | On November 24th, 2014, we caught a 43 inch male on the St. Lawrence River. Last week, on the same date, my buddie caught him again in the same spot. He is now 47 inches.
Conversely, we got one a few years ago that had been tagged in another river 9 years previously and when we recaptured it, it had traveled 2 rivers away and about 14 miles!
Edited by Larry Ramsell 11/29/2022 10:13 AM
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| We all know that some fish hang out in the same areas for days, weeks, or even all season. We know about seasonal migrations, spawning areas, and how they respond to temperature (seeking warmer water when it's cold and colder water when it's hot)... In smaller inland lakes there's really nowhere for them to go anyway. But where they can, some fish travel remarkable distances for no apparent reason. If not to spawn, find food, or a place to sit and do what muskies most often do (which is nothing) what's the pull? From an evolutionary standpoint, they should be able to remember where to go when they need to eat, but you don't leave food to find food.
I have read some studies that say they will instinctively return to the place there they hatched in order to breed, so that explains some of it. What does that mean for hatchery fish? Are they the ones that travel huge distances because they're trying to find their way "home"? That would make for a fascinating tracking study. |
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