Comments on: Crocs Are…Sunfish?

By: CVsgirl

CVsgirl — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:04:17 +0000

I can’t see how they’re mistaken for each other at all….some people…crazy imaginations.
I think some people see what they WANT to see

By: Munnin

Munnin — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:57:18 +0000

Interesting. My stepbrother and I once found a sunfish trapped in a tide pool at the mouth of Partington Cove, near Big Sur, California. It had a nasty looking scar across one side, and we thought perhaps it had been injured, and that the injury was what caused it to end up so close to shore and stuck in a tide pool. We freed it and got it into the water just off the rocks, but it did not appear to be swimming very strongly, and we figured it would likely end up as food for something else pretty quickly. We were both impressed by the large size of this fish (we had quite a job of it trying to catch and then release it, without harming it or ourselves while negotiating those sharp and slippery rocks), but it’s very difficult for me to see how anyone would mistakenly identify such a fish as a crocodile, or any other type of reptile.

By: DWA

DWA — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:32:56 +0000

Loren: I reserve the right to be figurative. What I meant was “take extreme measures,” among which dragging the lake – or particularly the ocean – might rate.

Daryl: that’s indeed a new one. I’m writing that one down. “No, it wasn’t a bear, it wasn’t a man, it wasn’t a horse’s butt, AND DON’T DO RIVER CANE ON THIS ONE, OK?!?!?!”

See you at the Conference. I’ll introduce myself.

By: Rogutaan

Rogutaan — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 14:42:43 +0000

When I was a kid, I went to SeaWorld a lot (back when it was actually a overglorified aquarium, before it was a “Adventure Park”). In the shark aquarium there was a rather large tank that had some random species in it. There were I think bull sharks, sawfish, some other large fish, and two sunfish. One time I was there and people thought the sunfsh was a great white shark…

So apparently sunfish are misidentified fairly often…?

By: Doug

Doug — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:23:17 +0000

Yeah. Mistaking a croc for a sunfish. Crocs don’t have fins that stick up out of the water, do they? Thought not.

I do wish local officials would at least go check these things out when possible, instead of passing it off as something else. Most of the time they are probably correct, but someone’s life could be at risk if the official is wrong.

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:58:01 +0000

I’ll go one further than the obvious difference in appearance between the two. Let’s talk about the differences in behavior between the two.

I’m not sure exactly how many crocidilians have been sighted in the area, but they are much more likely to be seen closer to shore than ocean sunfish, especially American alligators. Ocean sunfish are pelagic, meaning they are open water animals, and would likely not be found very close to the shore.

Also, many seem to think that sunfish are always found near the surface, but this is not true. Ocean sunfish actually spend a good amount of time deep underwater, specifically in the sunlit zone of water up to 200 meters deep, the epipelagic zone, as well as the deeper zone from 200 meters to 1,000 meters where there is not quite enough light for photosynthesis, or the mesopelagic zone.

While it appears that in this case some sunfish where found near shore, due to the difference in appearance and especially typical behavior, I am hesitant to say that all sightings of crocs or alligators could be the result of misidentifications of sunfish.

Perhaps the rarity of such near shore sunfish sightings could have contributed to surprising some, but wouldn’t locals know what a sunfish looks like? Why say they saw a croc when they could just say they saw a sunfish if that were the case? A lot of places have sunfish, in fact they are found all over the world, yet we don’t have crocodile sightings everywhere they are found.

I appreciate looking for mundane answers when they fit, but dismissing all reports as sunfish doesn’t really answer everything for me. Perhaps it is worth considering that when these eyewitnesses say they saw a crocodile or alligator, then maybe that is what is being described. It seems worthy of serious inquiry.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:54:49 +0000

Daryl Colyer: Yeech. That’s pretty bad, indeed.

To be honest, I don’t buy the “Sunfish Theory.” I’m not saying these Crocs seen could not have been another animal MISTAKEN for Crocs—but this? Er…No.

DWA: I agree it could be something else—but Sunfish? Really?

By: Lightning Orb

Lightning Orb — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:11:45 +0000

Agreed, a sunfish is a rather odd explanation for a croc sighting – particularly if crocs have been known to appear in the area.. I would guess croc, though even “it’s a log” would seem more likely than sunfish. Maybe they thought head-on it would look more similar?

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:10:10 +0000

DWA, that would be the ocean you would be dragging off the Caymans, not a lake. Rather big task, at that.

By: Daryl Colyer

Daryl Colyer — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 16:53:17 +0000

Yeah that’s pretty bad, but I still have to say that nothing is as bad as Texas Parks and Wildlife officials asserting that people who report seeing bigfoot are seeing river cane blowing in the wind.

Uh yeah, okay, whatever.