We are ending a long, prosperous summer where we saw king macks and a tarpon caught on Cape Cod, but are fascinated by the news out of Rhode Island.  The Local Catch, Inc, reported a 70-pound cubera snapper turning up in a fish trap off the West Wall at Point Judith, Rhode Island.

The cubera’s range is listed as Brazil to Massachusetts, though the fish is rare north of Florida.

Juvenile fish of a number of tropical species ride plumes of warm, Gulf Stream water into the Northeast every summer, but the cubera seems to be unique in that it’s the full-grown adults that wander this far north.

Atlantic cubera snapper are listed as vulnerable, due to overfishing at their spawning sites in the Caribbean. Spawning cubera congregate by the thousands over offshore reef sites and structure, making them easy targets for commercial fishing efforts.

The water is still very warm throughout the Northeast, and with a tropical storm potentially heading this way, we can only guess what “lost” southern species will turn up next.