Sunday, June 18, 2017

It May Choke Hogs But It Won't Choke Me

Classical allusion in the title

A busy day at the beach. Temperatures at home were near 90, but more like 80 on the beach, with a nice south wind.
The water was clear and exceptionally cool, and Skye kept trying to drag us out into it.
Selfie time!
Georgia and Skye cool their heels in the local stream. We found a few fossils, with Georgia getting a big, but broken piece of crocodile tooth.

Do you see it?













It's the small brown crescent, just above center right. It's a Hogchoker, Trinectes maculatus half buried in the surf zone. A very small flounder, it is one of the most common, but most rarely seen fish in the bay, because of their camouflage, and the way they dig in. The fact that it is in such shallow water suggests that we had a low oxygen event, where south winds brought cool, clear, but low oxygen water into the shallow waters.

They have very tiny mouths, and couldn't hit most lures or bait if they tried. They are edible, but hardly worth the work.

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