Tag: mola mola

California photographer swims with giant, alien-like sea creature

Mark Girardeau recalls jumping in with a 400-pound Mola mola, a.k.a. ocean sunfish, during an expedition out of Newport Beach.

Mola mola sightings are special because the massive sunfish, aside from being docile giants, are so peculiar-looking.

Their bodies are flat and appear to be missing their rear ends. With huge eyes and tiny mouths, they roam the currents looking clumsy and alien-like, but strangely beautiful.

But because Mola molas inhabit pelagic waters miles from shore, the vast majority of sightings occur from boats.

On Friday, however, a Southern California photographer shared an image of him in the water alongside a Mola mola he estimated to weigh 400 pounds.

A small fry if you consider that the Mola mola, the largest bony fish in the world, can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. But still impressive, and for Mark Girardeau an encounter he’ll always treasure.

“From the surface, you mostly just see the upper fin sticking above the water but once you jump in when the water is clear, it’s just the craziest experience!” Girardeau told FTW Outdoors. “The water was still and the ocean was a deep-blue color that day so you could just swim right over to this massive fish and it was fine with it.”

Mark Girardeau swims with Mola mola, or ocean sunfish. Photos: ©Delaney Trowbridge

The encounter occurred last summer between Newport Beach and San Clemente Island, in water more than 3,000 feet deep.

Girardeau stated Friday on Instagram: “I don’t post many photos of myself so here it is the real me (on the left)! Thanks to [Delaney Trowbridge] and her underwater housing for capturing this moment in time.”

Girardeau and Trowbridge were part of a Pacific Offshore Expeditions expedition.

Trowbridge is a captain and, like Girardeau, a talented photographer. Her Facebook post on June 30 showed the same Mola mola with a pilot fish escort.

Trowbridge described the encounter as “ dream come true… coming face to face with one of the strangest fish on Earth!”

She added: “ It wasn’t difficult at all to jump into 3,000 feet of open water to swim alongside this beautiful Mola mola.

“Accompanying this gentle giant was a lone pilotfish, a very rare species for Southern California, more often encountered in tropical waters. I can’t blame the little guy for visiting us though, it sure felt like we were swimming in Hawaii!”

Divers encounter one of the ‘weirdest creatures in the ocean’

A dive company in Mexico on Tuesday shared footage showing clients swimming with a large sunfish that was alien-like in appearance.

A company that specializes in shark encounters off Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, shared footage Tuesday showing a large Mola mola swimming with divers.

“One of the weirdest creatures in the ocean, THE MOLA MOLA,” Cabo Shark Dive suggested via Instagram. “We often see Mola molas during our ocean safaris, and they are super COOL and friendly!”

Mola molas (ocean sunfish) are the largest bony fish on the planet and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds.

The docile creatures pose little threat to divers, however, as they roam pelagic currents slurping sea jellies, crustaceans, small fish and algae.

They’re most famous for their alien-like appearance, with truncated bodies that are smooth and flat on both sides, and large eyes.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium website describes the Mola mola as a fish that “looks like the invention of a mad scientist.”

–Footage courtesy of Jacob Brunetti/Cabo Shark Dive.

450-pound sunfish discovered on N.C. beach; scientists overjoyed

A massive alien-like sunfish was discovered Wednesday on a North Carolina beach and was so heavy that scientists required a horse scale to obtain its weight.

A massive alien-like sunfish was found Wednesday on a North Carolina beach and the carcass was so heavy that scientists required a horse scale to obtain its weight.

The sharptail mola, similar in appearance to the more common Mola mola (ocean sunfish), weighed 450 pounds and is being kept at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Lily Hughes, Curator of Ichthyology at the museum, tweeted about the rare discovery Saturday.

“Fishmas came early to the Natural Sciences Ichthyology Unit this year!” Hughes boasted. “We are adding this beautiful 450 pound sharptail mola to our collection!”

 

The fish washed ashore at North Topsail Beach and, Hughes noted, “It has been pure chaos getting it to Raleigh, but we’re so glad it’s here!”

RELATED: ‘Stunned’ researchers rescue 4,000-pound sunfish from net

Hughes thanked the citizens of North Topsail Beach for their help in collecting the specimen, and the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University for allowing the use of its horse scale.

Sharptail mola (Masturus lanceolatus), also referred to as sharptail sunfish, are found globally in tropical and temperate waters. But they’re rarely encountered and little is known about their biology or life history.

The oddly shaped fish can weigh more than 4,000 pounds.

[listicle id=1990072]

Watch: Researcher wades out to greet rare, alien-like sunfish

A whale researcher in British Columbia, Canada, last week experienced an extraordinary encounter with a rare and enormous sunfish that appeared outside his home.

A whale researcher in British Columbia, Canada, last week experienced a “once-in-a-lifetime” encounter with a rare and enormous sunfish that he spotted from his home.

Jared Towers, who lives on Cormorant Island, waded into the water with what was later identified as a hoodwinker sunfish swimming just yards from shore.

“I can’t believe this just happened!” Towers wrote Oct. 25 on Facebook. “I’ve seen many sunfish (Mola) offshore over the years but never so close to home or this close up. Also, it turns out this is a Hoodwinker Sunfish (Mola tecta), a species only recently discovered.”

The hoodwinker sunfish was first identified as a species in 2017. They were subsequently believed to inhabit only subtropical and temperate waters in the Southern Hemisphere.

In 2019, however, a hoodwinker sunfish washed ashore near Santa Barbara, marking the first documentation of the species in the Northern Hemisphere.

RELATED: ‘Stunned’ researchers rescue 4,000-pound sunfish from net 

Towers told the Times Colonist that after spotting the sunfish he waded out to spend several “surreal” minutes with a gentle giant that weighed perhaps 400 pounds, measuring 7 feet wide and 10 feet across.

“It had these big beautiful eyes and it was looking me over up and down,” Towers said. “I’m used to having large mammals watching and having this inquisitiveness, but I never expected this out of a fish processing information about me.”

The most prevalent sunfish in the Northern Hemisphere is the Mola mola, which can weigh more than 5,000 pounds.

Alien-like in appearance, with truncated bodies, small mouths and large eyes, ocean sunfish are docile creatures that prey on sea jellies, squid, and other gelatinous zooplankton.

The sunfish encountered by Towers – it eventually swam away – was identified as a hoodwinker sunfish by Jackie Hindering of the Marine Education and Research Society in Port McNeill on Vancouver Island.

She told the Times Colonist that warming waters might in the Pacific be responsible for more sunfish appearing off British Columbia.

Hoodwinker sunfish might easily be misidentified as Mola molas. But they boast subtly different features, including a rounder head shape and smaller tail size.

Watch: Massive ‘alien’ fish gets helping hand from boat crew

Renowned big-wave surfer and freediver Mark Healey has shared video showing him using a brush to remove parasites from a Mola mola, or ocean sunfish.

Renowned big-wave surfer and freediver Mark Healey has shared video showing him using a brush to remove parasites from a Mola mola, or ocean sunfish.

“It kept coming back for more and could’ve probably done it all day,” Healey said via Instagram. “Those parasites are pretty buried in there, but I think I made a little headway with the boat brush.”

In the footage, under the title, “Healey’s Thai Massage,” one of the crew describes the ghostly white, oddly shaped sunfish as “an alien.”

Ocean sunfish are the world’s heaviest bony fish and can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Their massive bodies are flat and their tail sections are truncated. The gentle giants roam tropical and temperate oceans preying on items such as jellies, squid, and algae.

RELATED: Rare whale shark photographed by pilot off Southern California

Healey stated that surfacing molas will sometimes turn on their sides to allow gulls to remove their parasites.

Among the Instagram comments was this from fellow wave rider Michael Stewart: “It’s a cool moment when human and non-human earthlings connect.”

[listicle id=1956609]

Paddlers spot huge sunfish; looks like something a mad scientist created

On calm waters off Southern California, two paddleboarders came across a massive sunfish known as a mola mola, an odd-looking sea creature.

On calm waters off Southern California, two paddleboarders came across a massive sunfish known as a mola mola, described by one marine biologist as something a mad scientist put together with spare parts.

“It’s such an oddball kind of assembly of parts,” Julianne Steers, a marine biologist and founding board member of the Beach Ecology Coalition, explained further to the Orange County Register.

Rich German and Matt Wheaton were paddling off their hometown of Laguna Beach on Thursday when they encountered the odd-looking sea creature.

“We were just paddling and all of a sudden we were like ‘Oh my God,’” German told the OC Register. “That thing was massive. Most of my encounters are with dolphins and whales, but you never know what you’re going to see.”

German compared the length of the mola mola to Wheaton’s 14-foot stand-up paddleboard and estimated its length at close to 9 feet.

https://www.facebook.com/562114853/videos/pcb.10159605660779854/1102166930522037

Later, German looked up the record for a mola mola and claimed it to be 8 feet, 11 inches with a weight of 5,070 pounds, as reported by Guinness World Records. But Guinness also reported that that fish was later disproven as a mola mola by a scientific study.

However, Guinness also stated that a mola mola was found floating off Whangarei Heads in New Zealand in 2006 that stretched 10 feet, 9.9 inches with an estimated weight of 4,850 to 5,070 pounds.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Twilight Zone sea creature washed ashore after sonic boom

Steers told the OC Register that the one spotted by German and Wheaton was bigger than most seen in area waters, saying she’s seen them up to 7-feet long, but she wouldn’t call it a record.

“The only true way to know is if it was out and weighed and officially measured,” she told the OC Register. “But it does look much larger than what we typically see out here.”

German stated on Facebook it was the largest sunfish they’ve seen.

“I just know it was really big,” he told the OC Register. “It was a unique and very cool thing to experience, and another example of why we need to protect the ocean and the amazing life that calls it home.”

Photos courtesy of Rich German.

[listicle id=1315337]

Watch: Enormous sea creature hoisted from sea via crane

Rare footage shows an estimated 4,000-pound sunfish being hoisted aboard a vessel via crane during a successful entanglement rescue.

Rare footage captured off Africa’s north coast shows an estimated 4,000-pound sunfish, or moonfish, being hoisted aboard a vessel during a successful entanglement rescue.

The sunfish, believed to be a Mola alexandrini, became trapped in a net used to catch tuna off Cueta, a Spanish enclave in Africa.  The footage was captured on October 4.

A crew from a marine biology lab run by the University of Seville participated in the rescue. The footage shows the massive sunfish being hoisted by a crane and swimming after it was set free.

Click on this link for more on this story and to view images captured by the rescue crew.

Seabird’s masterpiece strongly resembles revered fish species

A seabird on Monday, while flying over a blue canvass boat cover, produced a splendid rendering of an ocean sunfish, or Mola mola.

A seabird on Monday, utilizing a blue canvass boat cover, produced a splendid rendering of an ocean sunfish, or Mola mola.

“Never knew gulls could be so artistic,” Kate Cummings, owner of Blue Ocean Whale Watch,” stated on Facebook.

Followers of the whale-watching company in Moss Landing, Calif., immediately recognized the dropping as being similar in appearance to the peculiar-looking Mola mola.

“Cut the material off and sell it on eBay for 1M,” reads one of dozens of comments.

Another echoed the sentiment: “Put some resin on it and make it into jewelry.”

ALSO ON FTW OUTDOORS: Blue whale ‘explodes out of the sea like a submarine’; video

Mola mola, which roam the oceans slurping sea jellies and other small prey, can measure 10 feet and weigh up 5,000 pounds. They’re the world’s heaviest bony fish and among the most easily recognizable fish species.

Cummings told For The Win Outdoors that she noticed the shape of the gull’s dropping as she was removing the flybridge cover from one of her boats.

Generic Mola mola/Wikimedia Commons

“It was immediate,” she said. “I’d be embarrassed about turning this into news if it wasn’t so uncanny.”

Because the fish are so goofy looking and docile, sightings are cherished by boaters as they search for whales and other marine mammals.

Reads another comment on Cummings’ Facebook page: “I want a bird to do this to me!”

Massive Mola mola surprises whale watchers

For a group of whale watchers on Tuesday, the highlight did not involve whales or dolphins, but a bizarre-looking fish called a Mola mola.

For a group of San Diego whale watchers on Tuesday, the highlight did not involve whales or dolphins, but a bizarre-looking fish called a Mola mola.

The surprise encounter occurred 10 miles southwest of Mission Bay as Capt. Domenic Biagini, of Gone Whale Watching San Diego, was searching for cetaceans. The Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, stood out because of its immense size and pale coloration as it lolled beneath the surface.

“It was really neat because most of the people on the boat specialized in diving, so this whole trip was something different for them,” Biagini told For The Win Outdoors. “Right as they got on the boat they asked about molas, and I explained how we haven’t seen that many this year. So for this to have happened on this specific trip made it that much more special.”

Mola molas are the world’s largest bony fishes (these do not include sharks or rays) and can measure up to 14 feet and weigh 5,000 pounds. They inhabit tropical and temperate seas and feed primarily on sea jellies, squid, small fish, and crustaceans.

Because of their truncated bodies, the position of their fins, and their odd-shaped mouths, their appearance is otherworldly. Or, as the Monterey Bay Aquarium states on its website, “Ocean sunfish, or molas, look like the invention of a mad scientist.”


Biagini said most Mola molas encountered off Southern California measure 2 to 3 feet, but the sunfish that swam around his boat for 10 minutes on Tuesday measured at least 7 feet.

“It was by far the largest I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The divers on the boat were so impressed that some were tempted to jump in for a swim with the docile critter. “It was hard keeping them in the boat,” Biagini joked. “But everyone behaved.”

–Images courtesy of Gone Whale Watching San Diego