A strange-looking, enormous sunfish was discovered by two fishermen on the shore at Coorong National Park in South Australia over the weekend. The ocean sunfish was spotted at the mouth of the Murray River by Steven Jones and his colleague Hunter Church.
“He thought it was a piece of driftwood as they were driving past on the work truck,” Jones’ partner Linette Grzelak, who posted the photos of the fish on Facebook, said. “Neither of them had seen anything like this before. They find all sorts of sea life along the beaches but it has been mostly sharks and seals. This was something very different,” Grzelak added.
National Parks South Australia said these sunfish are the world’s largest bony fish and they can weigh more than a car. The fish feed largely on jellyfish and can grow well over 2 meters—although this one was “only” 1.8 meters long, putting it on the smaller end of the scale, according to the South Australian Museum. “The sunfish is known for its large size, odd flattened body shape,” the museum’s fish collection manager Ralph Foster said. He added that he was able to identify the fish from the markings on its tail and the shape of its head.
Foster added that the fish is called sunfish because it enjoys basking in the sun. Their size and sun bathing habit mean they can be hit by boat. “Researchers have found they will come to the surface and lay on their side on the surface,” Foster said. “Once they are warm enough they dive down several hundreds of meters and feed on jellyfish and stay down there for some time. We know very little about them. It’s only in the last few years that technology has allowed us to start learning about them.”
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