Marianne Nyegaard | Hood-winking as an Artform: Mola tecta Surfaces in Californian Current System
Uploader: Exploring By The Seat Of Your Pants
Original upload date: Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Sun, 09 Jun 2024 05:24:42 GMT
The first ever report of a Hoodwinker sunfish (Mola tecta) in California in 2019, less than two years after the species was first described in New Zealand, came as a surprise. Mola tecta was thought t
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o be a temperate southern hemisphere species with the warm equatorial waters presenting a major barrier to its distribution. However, subsequently numerous hoodwinkers have “surfaced” in the Pacific Northwest. Although the ocean sunfish (Mola mola) is by far the most common Mola species in the Californian current system, our preliminary results indicate that Mola tecta also has a presence here beyond infrequent, chance occurrences. To better understand its spatial extent, our study relies on citizen science, media reports and social media to collect and curate sunfish photos from California to Alaska, from which we map species level occurrences. Our aim is to understand how common Mola tecta is in this area, relative to Mola mola, and (through genetic analysis) examine the connectivity with Mola tecta populations in South America and New Zealand. Our method has limitations however, and in addition to our preliminary results, this presentation also includes a brief review of practical ways – and pitfalls – to identity Mola species from photos.
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