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Tropical Fish in Cape Cod Waters: "The More You Look, the More You See."

gsoproject.org
Permit - Trachinotus falcatus. A member of the fast-moving jack family Carangidae, these fish can grow up to several feet. When seen along the New England coast as GSOs, these fish are only a few inches in length.

Gulf Stream Orphans are appearing in our region. That’s not the name of a rock band, and they’re not unaccompanied children. Gulf Stream Orphans is the research term for Caribbean fish that show up in our Cape Cod waters, and scientists are looking to see if their numbers are increasing.

Owen Nichols, Director of Marine Fisheries Research at the Center for Coastal Studies, joins us to talk about these fish, what types they represent, and new efforts to understand whether they're appearing more often, or simply being noticed more now that researchers are looking for them.  

Listen to the conversation below. 

Here's a link to the Gulp Stream Orphans project website. 

Steve is Managing Editor of News. He came to WCAI in 2007. He also hosts the weekly News Roundup on Friday mornings and produces The Fishing News.