SCITUATE, Mass., — October 25, 2013 — While diving off the pier at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate Harbor, a research diving class from the Boston University Marine Program discovered something not commonly found in the area – three juvenile butterfly fish.
Butterfly fish are small brightly colored fish often associated with coral reefs.
This species of fish, Chaetodon ocellatus, are found worldwide in tropical waters, according to Phillip Lobel, a biology professor at Boston University who was leading the research project at the Stellwagen pier.
“But this species we found in Scituate Harbor is known only from the tropical Western Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “This family (of fishes) is not found up here all year as this fish cannot tolerate the cold water.”
Lobel said just three juvenile butterfly fish were found, and that they all must have arrived to the area about the same time.
“This means these baby butterfly fish were transported from the breeding grounds in the Florida area to Massachusetts by ocean currents,” he said.
From July to late October, the Gulf Stream carries these young, dime-size reef dwellers from tropical waters near the Florida Keys and the western Bahamas, and abandons them along northern coastlines.