Why these scientists are studying 'tropical orphan' fish in RI waters

AI-assisted summary

Tropical fish are accidentally carried north to New England each summer by the Gulf Stream current.

A network of institutions and citizen scientists called the Gulf Stream Orphan Project tracks these "tropical strays."

Researchers are studying if warming ocean waters due to climate change will allow these species to survive longer.

NEWPORT – Mike O’Neill reached into the mess of seagrass tangled in a net and pulled out … a soggy strand of vegetation?

To the untrained eye, the slender form cupped in his hands didn’t look like any living creature from around here, but O’Neill, a curator at the New England Aquarium , recognized immediately what he’d found.

“A bluespotted cornetfish !” he exclaimed.

He plopped the pencil-thin fish into a cooler filled with seaw