October 2, 2024 — Cape Cod husband and wife oyster farmers were flipping bags on their oyster grant in Little Pleasant Bay in Orleans last week when a colorful little fish caught their eye.
When Tim Silva was working on flipping the 5,000 floating bags of oysters on Wednesday to help clear them of debris and establish the oyster shapes, he noticed a blue.
“Not a normal blue,” Silva said. “It was moving, and it was fish that was not supposed to be there.”
The fish, which would later be identified as a blue angelfish, gravitated towards Danielle Orcutt, his wife’s hands, presumably to keep warm. Since colder waters were approaching, Silva and Orcutt knew they needed to find a place where the fish could survive. So, they called Wild Care, a wildlife rescue nonprofit on the Cape.