HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A GIANT SUNFISH?

I was scrolling through my e-mail this morning and up pops a close encounter with a sunfish.  See this video for yourself. 

That above video of a woman diver being investigated by a sunfish was taken by Luis Miguel Gutierrez Bringas off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in late March.

Sunfish reside in open waters across the globe in tropical and temperate oceans and feed on mainly jellies and other gelatinous zooplankton like salps, squid, fish, crustaceans and algae.

Two years ago, Daniel Botelho stumbled across a sunfish--mola mola, capable of getting up to 5000 pounds--while on a mission to photograph blue whales off San Diego.

From six years ago, a BBC Earth video of a sunfish in Galapagos waters.  Watch the researchers getting so excited and awed.

From Master Liveaboards, everything you should know about the sunfish:

• To the right is a sunfish fry (baby), 3/32 inch long.  Note how the sharp outer edges protect it.
• Usually some shade of gray with white polka dots or darker large blotches, they will change color if stressed or attacked.

• 
  Fish in the ocean emerged 500 million years ago.  The mola mola perhaps 50 million years ago, but probably closer to 25 million.  However, here is the Leedsichthys problematicus from perhaps 165 million years ago that grew to 54 feet and 100,000 pounds, double the size of a whale shark today.
• Come from the order Tetraodontiformes, which also includes the pufferfish.  The sunfish you catch in a lake is not related.
• 
  Many other names.

• Ocean sunfish
• Moonfish (right---but is usually a different species in many countries)
• Cut-short fish in the Philippines
• Drinker fish in Portugal
• Kisser fish in Spain
• Parents’ fish in Hawaii (news to me)
• Lump-fish in Norway
• Propeller in Greece
• Toppled-car fish in Taiwan
• 
  Found in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
• They bask in the sun with the disk facing up.
• Usually found alone.

• 
  Little is known about conception, but a female can possess a hundred million eggs.

• There was a Mola mola in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, lived in a million-gallon tank, but grew to 800 pounds in 14 months and was released into the bay.
• 
  The heaviest ocean sunfish.
• Japan:  Caught in 1996, a Mola alexandrini was 8.9 feet long and weighed 5071 pounds.
• Another Ma (right) found off the coast of Faial Island, Azores, Portugal in 2021 was 12 feet tall, 11 feet long and weighed 6049 pounds, the record.
• One from Australia was struck by a boat in 1908 and weighed "only" 4927 pounds, but measured 10 feet from snout to tail fin, and 14 feet from dorsal fin to anal fin tip (below).
  

• This one washed ashore in Australia.

• 
  No one knows how long they live, but the guess is around 20 years.
• One common sunfish can have 40 species of parasites residing on their skin and internally.  That video above taken in Galapagos waters saw one of of them cleaning itself by brushing against kelp.  Basking in the sun also allows seabirds to feed on the parasites.  Another method is by breaching out of the ocean as high as 10 feet to dislodge the parasites.

• 
  They are preyed upon by orcas, sharks and sea lions...and humans.  They are delicacies in Taiwan and Japan.  They are thus on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

According to Wikipedia:

They are more of a problem to boaters than to swimmers, as they can pose a hazard to watercraft due to their large size and weight. Collisions with sunfish are common in some parts of the world and can cause damage to the hull of a boat,^[54] or to the propellers of larger ships, as well as to the fish.^[33]

I certainly had such an experience once.  Well, indirectly, at least.  It was 1972.  I had just got my PhD from LSU, and my wife and I, with her parents, began driving back to the West Coast via Panama City, Florida.  We noticed party boats advertising red snapper to catch.  So we made a reservation go on one the next day.  But that day, a sunfish sunk one of those boats.  They are quite large, as you can see to the left.  The red snappers we caught were about a foot long.  More recent photo of a typical catch.

But watch this Panama City video of this giant red snapper.

Saturday Night Live cold open from last night about the Trump tariffs.

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BONOBO: Closest Species to Us Homo Sapiens

While our economy spirals downwards with Trump's tariffs, and this Saturday experiences a thousand "Hands Off" anti-Trump protests across the nation, the U.S. Senate last night sneaked through Trump's tax breaks and spending cuts, his "big, beautiful bill."  The House will find a way to get this legislation to President Trump for his signature.  

Those protests won't convince the U.S. Congress to combat Trump's authoritarian overreach and billionaire-backed agenda.  It's almost like he is orchestrating the movement to crescendo into fire and turmoil, so that some time in the early fall of 2026, he can establish military rule and cancel the mid-term elections.  Might be unnecessary if he in the meantime purposefully defies any Supreme Court action to establish dictatorship anyway.  The judiciary and defense departments are run by his cronies, and our courts have no enforcement powers.

What can Democrats do to prevent all that from happening?  Nothing, except hope that he "dies," and perhaps that might just well be their only solution.

So much for the economy and politics today.  My subject of the day began when I was walking through the Stuttgart Zoo perhaps a half century ago, and came up to the exhibit for bonobos.  As I stood there and watched, one of them picked up a chair, sat down, and stared at me. Its movements and gaze looked too human.  Erie and fascinating.  A few steps away were chimpanzee infants playing around.  They looked like normal apes.  That day I was convinced that of all the living species, chimpanzees included, the bonobo was closest to us Homo sapiens.   I couldn't find a photo of a bonobo in a chair, so will show something made up by Etsy to the left, plus a shot below by Annie Carpenter of Lana, a female bonobo.

Are bonobos our closest relative?  I searched the world wide web, and the consensus seems to be the following.

Among the great apes, the chimpanzees and the bonobos are the most genetically related to us as we share about 98.7% of our DNA with them. We share a common ancestor with them as well as anatomical features, complex social hierarchies and problem-solving skills.

Nah, I still think bonobos are the closest.  Chimpanzees take the spotlight because they have dominated all the accomplished research.  Jane Goodall, for example, lived with them in the 1960's, and wrote that they made tools and had an array of human characteristics.  No one has really looked similarly closely at bonobos.  Comparing both:

• They share 99.6% of their DNA.
• Bonobos are smaller.
• Female  74 vs 93 pounds.
• Male  100 vs 132.
• Bonobos are more slender.
• Bonobos are more likely to walk on their two legs, while chimpanzees use all four limbs.
• Sound of bonobos is a higher pitch.
• Bonobo females run the group, but babies are the most highly respected.  They eat first.
• Chimpanzee males are at the top, except in a way, this is more human, in that the wife of the alpha male has significant influence.
• Female bonobos leave their society to join another.  Thus it is counterintuitive for women to dominate.
• 
  One reason is xenophilia, a tendency to make friends of strangers and share food with anyone.  In fact they would more likely share food with a stranger than a family member.
• Another is that females in the group have strong friendships. 
• Chimpanzees are xenophobic, meaning they are wary of strangers.  They don't share food with unknown individuals.
• When a bonobo society runs into another, there is a lot of excitement, leading to an orgy.  They make love, not war.  Sex is completely open: heterosexual, homosexual and little ones with each other.  A female gets pregnant only every five years.
• When a chimpanzee society runs into another, there is a lot  fighting, to the death.
• They generally don't mingle together, but can interbreed.
• Bonobos are civilized.

How many of you have ever seen a bonobo?  From The Conversation:

• They live in a peaceful community where the chief is female.
• There is little direct competition for resources.  They share.
• Their sexual ply and grooming is reminiscent of our own free love movements in hippie culture.
• 
  There is a bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• Given food in adjacent rooms. a bonobo shares food rather than eat alone.
• They have better social intelligence than chimpanzees.
• 3400 chimpanzees are currently managed in captivity worldwide.  120 bonobos live in European zoos, and about 85 in seven zoological institutions in the U.S., which also have over 2000 chimpanzees and 350 gorillas.   Only seven  zoos in North America provide a home for bonobos.  This is why many of you have never observed a live bonobo.
• 
  Twycross Zoo in the UK is one of four worldwide where visitors and see all the great apes:  gorilla, orangutan, chimpanzee and bonobo.

Finally, from NBC News:

Bonobos – the closest living genetic relative to humans – make all kinds of interesting noises like hoots, peeps and grunts. In new research, scientists say they've discovered that bonobos can combine different vocalizations together in ways that alter each sounds' individual meanings, allowing the great apes to form more complex phrases in ways that mirror elements of human language. The research challenges the prevailing thought that humans are the only species with this ability, and researchers think further study of bonobos could unlock keys to understanding the mystery of how humans evolved language.

More on bonobos?  Watch this 27-minute video.

A book to read, Bonobo, the Forgotten Ape.

This remarkable primate with the curious name is challenging established views on human evolution. The bonobo, least known of the great apes, is a female-centered, egalitarian species that has been dubbed the "make-love-not-war" primate by specialists. In bonobo society, females form alliances to intimidate males, sexual behavior (in virtually every partner combination) replaces aggression and serves many social functions, and unrelated groups mingle instead of fighting. The species's most striking achievement is not tool use or warfare but sensitivity to others.

In the first book to combine and compare data from captivity and the field, Frans de Waal, a world-renowned primatologist, and Frans Lanting, an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, present the most up-to-date perspective available on the bonobo. Focusing on social organization, de Waal compares the bonobo with its better-known relative, the chimpanzee. The bonobo's relatively nonviolent behavior and the tendency for females to dominate males confront the evolutionary models derived from observing the chimpanzee's male power politics, cooperative hunting, and intergroup warfare. Further, the bonobo's frequent, imaginative sexual contacts, along with its low reproduction rate, belie any notion that the sole natural purpose of sex is procreation. Humans share over 98 percent of their genetic material with the bonobo and the chimpanzee. Is it possible that the peaceable bonobo has retained traits of our common ancestor that we find hard to recognize in ourselves?

Eight superb full-color photo essays offer a rare view of the bonobo in its native habitat in the rain forests of Zaire as well as in zoos and research facilities. Additional photographs and highlighted interviews with leading bonobo experts complement the text. This book points the way to viable alternatives to male-based models of human evolution and will add considerably to debates on the origin of our species. Anyone interested in primates, gender issues, evolutionary psychology, and exceptional wildlife photography will find a fascinating companion in Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape.

To close:

In 2005, Vanessa Woods accepted a marriage proposal from a man she barely knew and agreed to join him on a research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country reeling from a brutal decade-long war that had claimed the lives of millions. Settling in at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo's capital, Vanessa and her fiance entered the world of a rare ape with whom we share 98.7 percent of our DNA. She soon discovered that many of the inhabitants of the sanctuary-ape and human alike-are refugees from unspeakable violence, yet bonobos live in a peaceful society in which females are in charge, war is nonexistent, and sex is as common and friendly as a handshake. A fascinating memoir of hope and adventure, Bonobo Handshake traces Woods's self-discovery as she finds herself falling deeply in love with her husband, the apes, and her new surroundings while probing life's greatest What ultimately makes us human? Courageous and extraordinary, this true story of revelation and transformation in a fragile corner of Africa is about looking past the differences between animals and ourselves, and finding in them the same extraordinary courage and will to survive. For Vanessa, it is about finding her own path as a writer and scientist, falling in love, and finding a home.

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HEALTH MATTERS

Trump's Liberation Day tariffs are crashing the stock market.

• Yesterday

• Dow Jones:  - 1630  3.9% drop
• S&P 500:  -274  4.84% drop  (itself lost nearly $2 trillion of value)
• Nasdaq composite:  -1050  -6.97%
• NBC News:
• The ripple effects of tariffs will be felt the most by lower-income Americans. Here’s why.
• A growing number of Republicans are joining Democrats as they consider ways to rescind existing tariffs while limiting Trump’s ability to impose new ones.

• Today
• Dow Jones:  -2238  5.5% drop
• S&P 500:  -323  6% drop
• Nasdaq composite  -963  -5.8% drop
• U.S crude oil prices declined 7.3% to $62.54/barrel, a drop of $4.41.

From Time magazine:

• Trump had initially publicized his tariffs as “reciprocal tariffs”—meaning taxes on other countries equal to the existing tariffs foreign countries have set against American goods.
• However, the tariffs announced on Trump’s “Liberation Day” were not, in fact, reciprocally calculated but instead were calculated based on countries’ U.S. trade deficit levels. Countries with which the U.S. has a higher trade deficit received a higher tariff. 
• Economist are horrified by Trump's above math.
• He imposed tariffs on Antarctic islands with more penguins than people.
• The U.S. Senate is restive.

From the New York Times this morning:

• Trump’s tariffs may be 50 times as painful for Americans as the ones he instituted in his first term, Justin Wolfers argues.
• Late night hosts joked about tariffs.

• 
  South Korea’s top court voted unanimously to dismiss the country’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

• 
  A report predicts what will happen if A.I. becomes smarter than humans. Researchers are warning of danger.
• Most clicked yesterday: Barack Obama appeared in the background of a family portrait. See the photo.

I continue part two of health matters today.  While my low density lipoprotein has historically been low, many others suffer from this molecule.  From NBC News:

One dose of experimental drug nearly wipes out 

stealthy cholesterol in 'remarkable' trial.

Millions of Americans are born predisposed to high levels of 

a cholesterol called lipoprotein(a). 

Doctors are finally figuring out how to treat it.

• 
  A single dose of an Eli Lilly drug, called lepodisiran, dramatically reduced levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL, the bad cholesterol) for up to a year.  
• LDL causes heart attack, stroke and early death.

• 
  LDL clogs arteries, causes inflammation and leads to blood clots.
• Lepodisiran works by targeting the mRNA, or messenger RNA, that tells the body to make Lp(a). Messenger RNA carries instructions to proteins in the body to produce certain substances, in this case, Lp(a). The drug works by essentially shooting the messenger.
• The drug appears to be safe.
• One injection cut LDL by 93.9% after six months.  
• A year later, still 88.% lower.
• Those who got a second dose at six months had a 94.8% reduction at the one-year mark.
• Eli Lilly's lepodisiran just finished Phase II trials.
• 
  Turns out that Novartis with pelacarsen (developed by Ionis) and Aamgen (develooped by Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals) with olpasiran are already in Phase III.  
• Olpasiran from Amgen drove down LDL by at least 95% within nine months.
• These companies are three years ahead of Lilly.
• There are 64 million adults in the U.S. with this problem.
• When will these become available?

On average, it took 10.5 years for a drug to get from Phase I to regulatory approval. Looking at individual stages of the process, the averages were 2.3 years for Phase I, 3.6 years for Phase II, 3.3 years for Phase III, and 1.3 years between Phase III and regulatory approval.

A second health matter, also from NBC News:

Not even wealth is saving Americans from dying at rates 

seen among some of the poorest Europeans.

• 
  50 years ago, the life expectancy in the U.S. and wealthy European countries was similar.
• That began to change in 1980.
• European longevity steadily increased.
• U.S. life expectancy struggle to keep pace, and began declining in 2014.
• The wealthiest group in northern and western Europe now have a mortality rate about 35% lower than the wealthiest group in the U.S.
• Europeans live six years longer than Americans.
• Today, the wealthiest middle-aged and older adults in the U.S. have roughly the same likelihood of dying over a 12-year period as the poorest adults in northern and western Europe, according to a study published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

• 
  Oh, by the way, the poorest 20% of Americans are richer on average than most European nations.

• That could be the problem, for we can afford overconsuming junk food, while not getting enough exercise.  We also don't have adequate access to affordable health care.  While Donald Trump can't really be blamed, he was president from 2016-2020 and tried to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.  This time he will succeed, making it all that much worse for the USA. Under these conditions, the Health and Human Services Department just laid off 20,000 employees.  Maybe not, for RFK Jr today said that it should only have been 10,000.
• Look for Europeans living even longer in the future, with American dying off even faster.

A third health item.  World Air Pollution index:

• Earlier this week.
•  #1  Baghdad  465.  #2  Kathmandu, Nepal 358.  #3  Delhi, India  222.
• #125  Seattle, USA  17.  #126  Kabul, Afghanistan  6.
• Oahu, Hawaii in the 20's.  However, Kilauea Volcano began eruption episode #16, with fountains up to 700 feet.  Episode #15 reached 1000 feet.  Alas, #16 ended two days ago, but the prevailing winds blew that old VOG to Honolulu.

Today, Honolulu jumped from the twenties to 79.  Photos from where I sit to crank out this posting:

About that photo of Barack Obama above, here is a family portrait taken more recently.

Michelle 61, Sasha 24, Barack is 63, and Malia Ann 26.  Below photo was taken a decade ago.

• 
  Malia in 2017 had an internship with Harvey Weinstein (yes him), graduated from Harvard in 2021 and worked on a short film, The Heart, as writer and director, which was screened at the 2024 Sundance Film festival.  She is now only called Maria Ann.
• Sasha worked at a seafood restaurant in Martha's Vineyard in 2016 and graduated from the University of Southern  California in 2023.
• Barrack Obama hasn't done much since leaving the presidency.
• Michelle Obama had two best-selling books Becoming (2018) and The Light We Carry (2022).

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