yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

A Fish Called Obama | Sea of Hope: America's Underwater Treasures


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

We were up at Cure, which is at the, uh, farthest island out in the chain. We were down at 300 feet in an area where we've documented every single fish. On this reef is a species known only from the Hawaiian Islands. It's truly the most unique set of fish on Earth.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash. It was a little pink fish, and there are lots of little pink fish down there, so that didn't get my attention. What got my attention was, on the dorsal fin of this fish, there's a spot—a big red spot with a blue ring around it. I thought no fish I know of has this color.

Very quickly, we determined it was a brand new species. The most distinctive feature about this fish was that spot on its dorsal fin—a big red spot with a blue ring around it—which reminded me of a certain logo of a presidential candidate.

"Hope spot."

"That's exactly right. This fish is special because it's the only fish we know of that lives only in the monument. So, a monumental fish."

"It's a monumental fish. It's a monumental discovery."

We have decided that we're going to name this fish in honor of President Obama.

"Toid Obama."

"That's exactly right. I have a favor to ask, Sylvia. Tomorrow, you're going to be meeting the President of the United States here at Midway. I need to ask for his essentially permission for us to name it in his honor. I'm sure he'll accept, but I just, before we do that, I want to make sure he's a willing participant in this."

"It will be my honor to, uh, be an ambassador for you and for Tosanoides Obama. I hope that is the way it works out."

More Articles

View All
A Conversation with Aileen Lee - Moderated by Geoff Ralston
Today I am honored to have my good friend Aileen Lee here, and we’re going to have a conversation about stuff. Yeah, well, I hope we talk about like aliens. Aileen is a very public personality in the venture world, so there’s lots of great talks she has g…
10 Good Problems You Want To Have
Everybody’s got problems, but you know not all problems are the same. There are some problems you actually want to have because they’re the indicator of a good life. When you take things for granted, you forget the good things that life has offered you. …
Acceleration | Physics | Khan Academy
I decided to raise my regular household car with a sports car, say Ferrari. Well, clearly, it’s no match for me. It has a very high top speed, but what if we both agree, for the sake of this race, to limit our top speed to say 80 miles an hour? Now, do yo…
How I Got Arrested Working to Save Elephants | National Geographic
Imagine this: I’m in Tanzania and I am about to enter the airport in Dar es Salaam. I have a large suitcase with elephant tusks inside. I’m trying to put all the bags in together to try to mask, and the bags go through. Then he says the worst thing an air…
How One Orphaned Gorilla Inspired Her to Save Hundreds More | National Geographic
Hunters are going in and killing large family groups. The young orphans are left because they’re too small to be sold as meat. So I’d only been here a month, and I was given the opportunity to look after an infant gorilla. The reason my whole life turned …
Where Does The Sun Get Its Energy?
It’s another beautiful day in Sydney. I’m out enjoying the sun and looking to find out if anyone knows why the sun shines? So the sun gives us a lot of… ? Heat? Sunshine? Provides energy? (yes) Heat energy. Where does the sun get that energy from? I…